UNIVERSITY OF ARTS IN BELGRADE
Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies
UNIVERSITÉ LUMIÈRE LYON 2
Faculté d'Anthropologie et de Sociologie
UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management
Master thesis
FESTIVALS AS GENERATORS OF KNOWLEDGE
Case study of Kondenz Festival of Contemporary Dance
Student:
Tina Dunjić
Mentor:
Milena Dragićević Šešić, PhD
Belgrade, September 2011
Acknowledgment
I would like to express my gratitude to my mentor professor Milena Dragičević Šešić for her guidance, encouragement and support to my research. For inspiring me on the subject and her endless support I express my gratitude to Marijana Cvetković. The research couldn’t be accomplished without Dragana Alfirević and Marijana Cvetković from Station, artists/dancers/choreographers Ljiljana Tasić and Jovana Rakić, Aja Jung and Milena Radovanović from Belgrade Dance Festival and Biljana Tanurovska from Locomotiva Skopje. Thank you for finding the time and patience for responding to my questions. My gratitude goes to all my colleagues from MA program. Without you this year wouldn’t be one of the best years of my life. Thank you for the laughter, fun and bounding we made, it is unforgettable. My gratitude finally goes to my family for always believing in me, to my husband Alexis for his encouragement and for standing by me and to Agnès, who will always be in my heart.
2 Contents:
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...... 2
ABSTRACT ...... 5
RESUMÉ (EN FRANÇAIS) ...... 6
INTRODUCTION ...... 10
The aim of the thesis ...... 12
Methodology ...... 13
CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION TO THE FESTIVALS
1.1. Notion ...... 15
1.2. Festivals through history ...... 16
1.3. Festival classification and different festival functions ...... 18
1.3.1. Why are festivals so attractive? ...... 21
1.3.2. What should be the mission of festivals? ...... 22
1.4. A phenomenon of festival overproduction ...... 22
1.5. Contemporary dance festivals ...... 26
CHAPTER II - CONTEMPORARY DANCE FIELD OUTSIDE THE CULTURAL POLICY IN SERBIA
2.1. Cultural policy of contemporary dance in Serbia ...... 28
2.1.1. History of contemporary dance in Serbia ...... 32
2.1.2. Beginning of THE contemporary dance scene in Serbia ...... 34
2.2. Festivals which promote contemporary dance in Serbia ...... 37
CHAPTER III - REGIONAL CONTEXT FOR CONTEMPORARY DANCE DEVELOPMENT IN SERBIA
3.1.Station- service for contemporary dance ...... 40
3.2. Nomad Dance Academy (NDA) ...... 42
3 CHAPTER IV - FESTIVALS AS MOVING FACTORS OF DANCE PRACTICES IN SERBIA
4.1. Kondenz dance festival ...... 47
4.1.1. Who is a curator? How to define curating? ...... 50
4.2. Belgrade dance festival ...... 53
4.3. Comparative analysis of Kondenz dance festival and BDF ...... 56
CHAPTER V – POSSIBLE NEW MODEL OF FESTIVAL
5.1. What are new curating practices? ...... 61
5.2. Proposal of new model ...... 62
CONCLUSION ...... 65
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 67
APPENDIX ...... 70
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...... 82
4
ABSTRACT
The idea for this master thesis came as a result of internship in Station-service for contemporary dance in Belgrade who is an organiser of Kondenz contemporary dance festival, which is a case study of the thesis. The model of this festival was a starting point for research about the festival value as a space for creation, production and transfer of ideas and knowledge.
Through research about festivals an overall picture of this field is presented in order to explore missions, roles and values they have. Since Kondenz is a festival of contemporary dance from Serbia, its local context was presented. Contemporary dance in Serbia is explored through its history and policy and two most important actors for its development, Station- service for contemporary dance and Nomad Dance Academy regional project for professional education in the field of the contemporary dance. Both of these actors are initiators of Kondenz festival and make a valuable source of information about the context, its concept and its purpose in the local context.
The focus of this master thesis was on the case study. The detailed analyse of its concept, mission, vision, goals and its form was done with aim to present a festival and the flexible model of festival. Its model was analyzed along with a model of Belgrade Dance Festival, which is completely different model of festival. The comparative analysis of these two festivals was made made in order to distinguish differences between two completely different models of festivals from the field of dance and their influence on the local context.
Possible new model of festival and its presentation is based on information provided from all of analysis made in field of festivals in generally and specifically from the information provided from the analysis of festival Kondenz . From this research it can be concluded that festivals that generate knowledge have bottom-up approach concept, have a form of platform where all the participants are invited to join by changing the roles and becoming active participants. With its flexible, experimental form this festival could be easily applicable. The most important thing is its influence an all participants and the local context.
5 RESUMÉ (EN FRANÇAIS)
S'adressant aux individus, les arts et la culture sont des moyens pour atteindre leurs sens et leur intellect. Dans cet ordre d'idée, le rôle des festivals est d'observer attentivement l'évolution de leur environnement et les besoins de leurs publics, afin de proposer à ces derniers un regard renouvelé sur le monde qui les entoure.
Les festivals tiennent une place privilégiée pour fournir à chacun les moyens de faire l'expérience de la culture. Ils ont en effet pour principales caractéristiques d'être différents, innovants et productifs. Les festivals ouvrent les portes à de nouvelles formes artistiques, de nouveaux artistes, de nouveaux publics, des lieux insolites, des cultures inconnues, de nouveaux points de vue, de nouvelles façons d'appréhender le monde, de nouveaux ordres sociaux, de nouvelles discussions politiques.
De nos jours, on a très souvent recours la forme du festival à des fins diverses, créant ainsi leur multiplication, voire leur surproduction. De nombreux faits attestent que les festivals sont devenus un produit de consommation, ayant alors perdu leur but initial. Ils sont de plus en plus considérés comme des manifestations visant à attirer les gens, et non comme un événement à même d'établir de nouvelles pratiques et de nouveaux modèles.
Ainsi, la réussite et la qualité des festivals sont en général mesurées quantitativement. En effet, si un festival a été fréquenté par un grand nombre de visiteurs, si les médias lui ont porté une attention particulière et si les sponsors se sont montrés nombreux, alors ce festival est considéré comme un succès.
L'objectif de cette recherche est d'examiner en quoi un festival, en tant que type de manifestation culturelle, peut être considéré comme un espace générateur de connaissances. Remplissant une mission culturelle, il s'agit de voir ce qu'un festival offre ou peut offrir en termes de questionnement, d'apprentissage, de réflexion, d'impact. Cet objectif s'appuie sur le fait qu'un festival, de par sa forme, a une valeur communicationnelle intrinsèque, ce qui permet de créer un espace de dialogue, de production et de transformation.
Ce travail de recherche se base sur l’analyse des festivals de danse contemporaine en Serbie et s'intéresse au cas du festival de danse contemporaine de Belgrade, Kondenz , ici présenté comme une étude de cas.
6 En Serbie, comme dans la plupart des pays de la région des Balkans, le domaine de la danse contemporaine est considéré comme le plus jeune dans le secteur culturel. Par conséquent, la danse contemporaine est institutionnellement négligée à cause d'un manque d'infrastructures, de tradition, de professionnels et de conscience quant à sa nécessité. Finalement, il n'existe pas de politique culturelle incluant la danse contemporaine. L’ONG Stanica et le projet Nomad Dance Academy sont deux acteurs très actifs dans le développement, la professionnalisation et la promotion de la danse contemporaine en Serbie.
A travers l'étude de cas du festival de danse contemporaine Kondenz, l'accent est mis sur un modèle de festival flexible et ouvert, deux caractéristiques permettant à son contenu d'évoluer. Kondenz est ainsi basé sur une approche bottom-up.
Cette recherche a donc pour finalité d'identifier le rôle des festivals en tant que processus suscitant échanges, questionnements et connaissances. À partir de cette conception des festivals, il s'agit enfin de la proposer comme un nouveau modèle possible de festival.
Pour construire cette réflexion, il est à supposer qu’aujourd’hui les festivals sont plus orientés vers la reproduction et la diffusion que vers une réelle production de créations artistiques. La conception envisagée d'un nouveau modèle de festival, au cœur duquel se situerait le processus même de création, se fonde sur la possibilité de créer un espace pour la production de nouvelles idées et connaissances.
Au niveau théorique, cette recherche s'appuie sur la littérature appropriée et sur l'étude de cas réalisée. Pour obtenir une image plus générale des festivals et de leurs modèles, une recherche des ressources en ligne et hors ligne a été effectuée. Afin de collecter des informations et de recueillir différentes expériences sur la question des festivals, a été utilisée la méthodologie suivante :
- Analyse de différents auteurs, ouvrages et articles consacrés au sujet des festivals ;
- Recherche de données sur le festival de danse Kondenz , le festival de danse de Belgrade (Belgrade Dance Festival ), Stanica (ONG pour la danse contemporaine), Nomad Dance Academy et le domaine de la danse contemporaine ;
- Collecte d'informations et de ressources sur Internet : Association Européenne des Festivals (EFA), Compendium, articles en ligne.
7 Outre une recherche documentaire à propos de Kondenz et du Festival de danse de Belgrade, des entretiens semi-structurés ont été menés. À partir d'une série de questions sur les deux festivals, un guide d'entretien a été élaboré.
Par ailleurs, vu le fait que mon stage d'étude a été effectué au sein de Stanica, l'observation comme méthode a également été utilisée.
Ce mémoire se compose de cinq chapitres. La partie introductive donne le cadre de la recherche : elle présente les objectifs, précise les hypothèses de travail et expose la méthodologie utilisée afin de confirmer ou de rejeter l'hypothèse mentionnée.
Afin de mieux cerner la notion centrale de ce travail, à savoir les festivals, le premier chapitre revient sur l’histoire des festivals, leur rôle et la notion de festival.
Dans le deuxième chapitre, la recherche s'intéresse à l'histoire de la danse contemporaine en Serbie ainsi qu'à la politique culturelle des arts du spectacle et des festivals serbes qui favorise la danse contemporaine.
Le troisième chapitre du mémoire est consacré au contexte régional et au développement de la danse contemporaine en Serbie. Plus précisément, y sont étudiés Stanica, organisation pour la danse contemporaine, et Nomad Dance Academy . La présentation de ces deux acteurs du domaine de la danse contemporaine est une introduction à l’analyse du festival de danse Kondenz, laquelle se présente comme une étude de cas dans ce mémoire de master.
Le festival Kondenz est analysé en détails dans le quatrième chapitre, dans le but d'explorer son modèle qui est ouvert à la transformation, à la création de connexions, de relations évolutives, et à la génération de connaissances. Kondenz festival et le Festival de danse de Belgrade sont présentés dans le cadre d'une analyse comparative. Cette dernière est réalisée dans le but d'établir une différence entre deux modèles de festival de danse totalement différents et de distinguer l'influence que ces deux festivals exercent sur la danse contemporaine en Serbie.
Le dernier chapitre est d'une importance centrale pour ce mémoire de master, car il propose un nouveau type de festival, un modèle de festival possible, provenant de l'analyse de Kondenz et de l'analyse comparative des deux festivals de danse. La mise en lumière de ce nouveau modèle de festival qui pourrait être utilisé montre que les festivals peuvent également disposer d'une sorte de plateforme qui permet à tous les acteurs impliqués de
8 communiquer directement, en exprimant leurs attitudes, leurs idées et leurs opinions, générant ainsi des connaissances.
L'idée principale est donc de créer un espace ouvert où des artistes, des programmateurs, des conservateurs et le public vont interagir. La procédure d'adhésion est basée sur l’invitation, plutôt que sur la sélection. L'espace dans lequel les acteurs interviennent est activement créé et il est en relation étroite avec le contexte local. Il permet une communication plus approfondie avec les acteurs locaux ainsi qu'une réflexion sur le contexte local et les impacts. Tous les acteurs invités renoncent alors à leur rôle de sorte que l'accent principal est mis sur le processus de travail créatif et le dialogue collectif.
Conclusion
Les festivals sont créés pour un court terme, ils disparaissant aussitôt terminés en ne laissant presque aucun impact. Dans la logique de la société d’aujourd’hui, les festivals deviennent des lieux de diffusion pour de nouvelles œuvres artistiques. Dans ce contexte, les artistes passent beaucoup de temps à se déplacer d'un festival à l'autre afin de présenter leur travail artistique sans avoir la possibilité d'influencer les contextes locaux, d'y laisser leur empreinte. Ils n'ont le temps ni de s'impliquer dans l'échange, ni d'apprendre. Le même constat est à faire avec les autres participants au festival, dont le rôle est passif.
En inventant de nouvelles approches, en renouvelant leur programmation, en critiquant le contenu et en explorant de nouveaux modèles et formes de production artistique, les festivals changent de sens et de but.
Un festival peut ainsi prendre la forme d'une plateforme où la connaissance est réinterrogée, critiquée, modifiée et donc constamment produite. Les participants y sont dépourvus de leurs rôles précédents, créant ainsi un autre espace pour chacun d'eux leur permettant de réfléchir et de s’interroger. Ce qui rend ce modèle intéressant est le résultat inattendu et la rencontre informelle.
Les frontières entre la «performance» et la «vie quotidienne», entre le temps de production et le temps des performances, la différence entre le temps «plein» et le temps «vide» devient vague. La forme du festival est souple, ouverte et expérimentale, ce qui le rend facilement applicable.
9 INTRODUCTION
The name festival has in its root a notion for festivity and celebration. They are those special moments when people get together to celebrate and share. Festivals can have different roles and functions thus re-modelling cultural and social life of individuals, groups and communities. They can provide new knowledge, new dialogues and can confront almost anybody with the arts and culture. The mission of festivals should be to make bridges between people and societies, to give opportunity to artists to present their work and audience to participate.
The festival purpose is neglected today due to exploitation of its form and its context. Unfortunately, very often the label “festival” serves primarily to generate extra grants, sponsors, audiences and box-office income, becoming thus just a marketing trick for earning money or developing business. The new phenomenon called fesivalization or festival overproduction creates and opens debates about the purpose and real function of festivals.
There are various classifications of festivals, according to their forms, functions, roles etc. The most common one is c ommunity self-celebrations/"ritual “, c ommercial crowd-gathering events and artistic festivals. The focus in this master thesis will be on artistic festivals as those festivals who are contributing to the development of the arts and to the evolution of the public’s perception of art. The starting point for the master thesis is to explore the form of festivals who with their concept make a space for creation and generation of knowledge.
The research is made on contemporary dance festivals in Serbia, with contemporary Kondenz dance festival from Belgrade taken as a case study. In Serbia like in most countries of the Balkan Region contemporary dance field is considered to be the youngest in the cultural sector that is project based. Therefore it is institutionally neglected due to a lack of infrastructure, tradition, professionals and awareness about its necessity. Finally there is no defined cultural policy about contemporary dance field. NGO Station and Nomad Dance Academy are two actors who are really active in development, professionalization and promotion of contemporary dance scene in Serbia. “…We are still an excess, a crack in the continuity of not having the space where contemporary dance is operating and where the audience can continually follow the transformations of dance…”
10
“Acting within a system that would not recognize us as a part of it infused us with a feeling of not-belonging, which led us to create a ‘new system’ within the system, a different format that would enable the re-production of the notions of culture and its values. Or, to be more precise, we tried to modify the rules of the ‘infinite’ game and create a space where no national cultural policy or national agenda could direct or limit the production of new values. “1 These two actors are very important for the contemporary dance field in Serbia and are initiators of Kondenz dance festival.
Kondenz Contemporary Dance festival from Belgrade is the model of festival opened for evolution of its content and offering the bottom-up approach to cultural policy. Its context is based on multidirectional communication, on openness and dialogue. This performing art festival is changing its concept towards festival that generates knowledge. It is one of rare festivals for contemporary dance in Serbia and it represents a sort of activist festival in this field placing the contemporary dance scene on national, regional and international level. The research about contemporary dance festivals in Serbia will be also made through Belgrade dance festival , a festival bigger in format and in budget than Kondenz. Its program is based on presentation of artistic dance; modern ballet, modern dance and few contemporary dance performances only from the international level. This festival has become a brand in the dance field in Serbia and abroad.
Literature
The research for this thesis was based upon literature and articles from the field of festivals, performing arts, management...
Research about festival field was based mostly on the literature and articles from professor Dragan Klaic. Also a lot of research was done due to EFA festival association for research in this field whose role is to support festivals in their important mission-making sure that festivals open doors, open minds and contribute to building societies! 2.
1 Dragana Alfirevic I dr, (2011), “Nomad Dance Publication”, Skopje: Lokomotiva 2 http://www.efa-aef.eu/
11
Concerning performing arts field and dance most of the literature was based upon the books and articles written by theoretician Ana Vujanovic.
In the field of management I relied upon several books by Milena Dragićević-Šešić and Sanjin Dragojević (2005) and several other authors.
The aim of the thesis:
The aim of this master thesis is to research the model of festival as generator of knowledge and to see what the festival as a format of socio-cultural event offers or can offer. This aim relies on a fact that a festival in its form has a strong communicational value and by it creates a space for dialogue, production and transformation. Through case study of Kondenz contemporary dance festival the focus is on the model of festival which is flexible and open for evolution of its content. Kondenz is based on bottom-up approach which means a self-organised festival with horizontal decision making process and division of roles, where activities derive from the bottom. The aim is also to explore what are the real and possible influences of this festival on local contemporary dance scene. More specific aim would be to make visible the value of festivals as generators of knowledge and to propose the possible mew model of festival.
The main research questions:
1. How can a festival contribute to creation of knowledge and (co)production? 2. Does festival Kondenz have an influence on dancing scene of Serbia? 3. What could be a possible new model of festival?
12 Hypothesis:
Following hypothesis are based on theoretical background and research analysis in the field of festivals:
It is to assume that in the festival overproduction they are more oriented on re- production than on production of artistic products
It is to assume that festivals have potentials for producing and generating knowledge but they don’t use it
More specific hypothesis would be:
New possible model of festival base its concept on creating of space for production of new ideas and knowledge
♦ Through the process of production these festivals involve all the participant thus making a platform for exchange and generating of knowledge
Methodology:
This thesis is built upon relevant literature which is followed by case study.
First part of the research is theoretical part, i.e. literature search.
To get an overall picture about festivals and its models the method of desk research of online and off-line resources is made. In order to obtain knowledge and different experiences about the issue of festivals, methodology is following:
- Analysis of different authors, works and articles dedicated to the topic of festivals
- Search of database about Kondenz dance festival, Belgrade Dance festival, Station-service
for contemporary dance and Nomad Dance Academy , contemporary dance field
- Internet data base – European Festival Association (EFA), Compendium, on-line articles…
13 For more detailed information about case study the research method of case study design and comparative research design is used.
This method entails the detailed and intensive in depth analysis of a case study. As mentioned in the title of the master thesis Kondenz contemporary dance festival is used. This festival was analyzed in details in order to show its real purpose as a festival which creates space for knowledge, trying to push the limits of dance field and was a starting point for making basis in the proposal for possible new model of festival.
Through strategic analysis of the festival the information about festival’s concept, audience, budget and positioning of the festival were revealed and explained. Belgrade Dance Festival (BDF) was used as a second case study in order to oppose concepts of two contemporary dance festivals with different impacts on contemporary dance scene in Serbia and to make comparative research design.
Besides desk research about Kondenz and BDF, semi-structured interviews were used. Through a set of questions about two festivals an interview guide was formed. A goal was to interview members of Station, NDA and members responsible for creation of each festival. More specifically, to obtain information about contemporary dance field in Serbia and about Kondenz festival an interview was made with Dragana Alfirevic – co-founder of Station and a co-founder of Balkan Dance Network, program selector of the festival and Marijana Cvetkovic – co-founder and manager of Station and Nomad Dance Academy. Two interviews were also made with contemporary dancers/artists/choreographers - Ljiljana Tasic and Jovana Rakic .
On the other hand to obtain the information about Belgrade Dance Festival the interview was made with Aja Jung – initiator and director of Belgrade Dance Festival and Milena Radovanovic – responsible for the organization of BDF. Since the internship was made in Station , the observation as a method was also used. The information collected is coming from the first hand about the functioning of the organization, its members and organization of Kondenz festival.
14 CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION TO THE FESTIVALS
1.1. Notion
The meaning of festival could be observed and interpreted through various points of view, “hiding” the ideas for community, temporality, production, transformation, local, national, regional, international, relaxation, new, network, knowledge… In more egoistic point of view, festivals are created due to the fundamental human need to celebrate the achievement which is considered to be valuable. Festivals provide to the audience and artists to share a moment in which a powerful relationship can develop all in a festive mood. As most festivals aim to present varied artistic and cultural practices, they constitute an invaluable source of information on specific communities of different origins, beliefs, opinions and traditions. Festivals and reviews represent a very important way of diffusion of culture, because they provide validation of artistic creation: reviews by very selection of presented programs, and festivals by awards given to the artists. Both types of events give an insight into artistic achievements of an environment in a given period of time. 3 Talking about festivals is taking into consideration their cultural, social, economic and political background. Each festival reposes on a certain programme and concept and is created for the public, depending on it as its only “capital”. Modern festivals very often provide the arena for intercultural interactions, as well as an important factor in the re-organisation of public space. The complex character of festivals, the multitude of their functions (social, artistic, cultural, and economic) and the broad spectrum of their impact cannot be ignored.
There are a lot of definitions of festivals but none is taken as final. “A festival is whatever its organisers regard as a festival” 4. However all of created definitions contain words like celebration, gathering, meet, share, bound, exchange, collective, event... The European Festival Association 5, the most famous and one of the rare associations which makes the research in this field has described festivals as those special occasions when an outstanding concentration of attention, talent and enjoyment occurs, when the individuals and
3 Dragićević-Šešic, Stojković, “Kultura, menadžment, animacija”, op. cit: 171 4 Festival word-summary report, national survey on festivals in Hungary, http://www.efa-aef.eu 5 http://www.efa-aef.eu
15 collective bound by the same festive purpose and when the hectic of the everyday life makes space for the appreciation of art. In this sense festivals are both artistic and social events, moments that claim the public sphere for creativity and reassert the cultural dimension of our communal lives. 6
1.2. Festivals through history
History of festivals shows their rise in number but also their diversity and role they perform. Through time, festivals changed their concepts, forms, thus mirroring changes in human perception of the world. Through their forms and concepts they generate variety of cultural expressions and illustrate many social practices.
Cultural events concentrated in a few days (weeks) have been known throughout the entire history of humankind. At the beginning, these events were almost exclusively of a religious, ritual nature. The first dated festival took place in 534 BC in Athens and it was related to celebration of the god Dionysus, the god of wine, feast and dance. Festivals were also used as moments for social interaction, excitement, even philosophical reflection on future society 7. In medieval times festivals were held to commemorate historic events, military triumphs, religious holidays, etc. First festivals which made a digression from the religious concept and gained a secular dimension, dedicated to art, took place in the 18 th century. For example it was the case of Comédie française , performed in Paris, and in Stratford upon Avon in honour of Shakespeare’s birthday, in 1765. Those in the modern sense of the word were actually celebrations of art, meeting points for those of the cultural and social elite. These festivals, comparable in structure and concept with festivals as we know them today, emerged with the establishment of the Bayreuth Festival in 1876, by Richard Wagner who saw opera as a “total work of art”. At the beginning they included only one art form. Thus the presence of arts was used to express some other reached qualities than cultural. As such, they influenced the development of several aspects of society including arts education, international trade and relations, and of course with many visitors, the tourism. At that period festivals were very
6 EFA 50th anniversary Charter, www.efa-aef.org 7 Dragičević Šešić, Milena; Klaić, Dragan, (2003/2004) Course reader: Management of performing arts and festivals, MA in Interculturalism, cultural management and cultural policy in the Balkans
16 special occasions, festivities of the arts, offering exclusive things that were not otherwise available. Best examples of those festivals were certainly, the Venice Biennale, founded at the end of the nineteenth century, covering fine arts, the Salzburg festival for classical music and the first festival explicitly devoted to Europe, founded in 1920. 8 The most famous festivals in Europe who without any dough had an impact on cultural life were the Avignon Festival, Edinburgh Festival and the Holland Festival , all founded before 1950 and still active today. For the first time it was possible to see foreign performances in the program of these festivals. In this period theatre took over music or stood aside it in selected festivals. Between 1960 and 1980 festivals were more used for various purposes: tourist appeal, the establishment of minority cultures, the promotion of contemporary work and openness onto different styles and music. 9 New festivals were created in Central and Eastern Europe, like the Zagreb Biennale in 1961, the Ohrid Summer Festival in 1961, Brno Festival in 1966, the Belgrade Music Festival in 1969 and many more. The 70’s were also marked by the discovery of contemporary expressions and by the establishment of alternative art forms which promote anti-majority and peace oriented values. As number of festivals was growing the variety of their forms and concepts grew along. Many multidisciplinary festivals based on all kinds of themes were created in Europe, i.e. gastronomy, geography, feminism... In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the festivals were established with a purpose to attract attention and to point out that the state builds a „soft socialism“system which perfectly suits the human being, i.e. that Yugoslavia is a country of a tolerant and friendly self-governance and does not dictate, but in contrary, enables creation of climate in which the society will be re-examined, and experiments can be done. The following examples, Bitef, MOT, Eurokaz, Eksponato , where created to enable a “free” space without any censorship. The period of 1990’s was extremely rich in number of festivals in Eastern Europe. According to Anna-Marie Autissier, festivals in Eastern Europe from 1990 till 2005 drive new urban spaces. There was a huge need to share in a society liberated from authoritarianism and to provide jobs for artists and funds for programmers. For example Brno festival became the hub of a new festival involving twenty cities in the region. Festivals also became a way to raise
8 Ibid 9 Anne-Marie Autissier, “A short history of Festivals in Europe from the 18th century until today”, in the book , “The Europe of festivals, from Zagreb to Edinburgh, intersecting viewpoints...”, editions de l’attribut, 2009
17 voice and protest against various things. One of good example was the birth of the Exit Rock Festival in 2000 in Novi Sad, which was to protest against Milosevic’s regime 10 .
1.3. Festival classification and different festival functions
“Festivals are players in the urban politics of space and location, they are capable of achieving a certain re-mapping of the city in the minds of its inhabitants and visitors, to challenge habitual perceptions of the urban environment, dispel prejudices and “common truths” about some neighbourhoods, create alternative routes for the curious and set out new paths of mobility." 11
Dragan Klaic
In spite of the facts that most of festivals are running from sever classification and categorisation, their dynamic and changeable characteristics just impose an inevitable standardisation. 12 The most common categorisation of festivals is according to function, content and size. Other interpretation of classification of festivals are the two most crucial poles: the arts festivals on the one hand and entertainment festivals on the other hand: “gaiety” or “merry- making”, including, among others, a fair of arts and crafts products, offering a wide variety of gastronomy. 13
The most common classification of festivals was made by Professor Dragan Klaic who divided festivals in three groups:
1) Community self-celebrations/ "ritual “: where a specific community wants to show that they are present, showing off their cultural heritage
10 Ibid 9. 11 http://www.efa-aef.eu 12 Adopted from Dragan Klaic 13 National Survey on festivals in Hungary,(2006) Festival World Summery Report, Budapest , (online), available: http://www.budobs.org/pdf/Festival_en.pdf (15 August 2011)
18 2) Commercial crowd-gathering events: very commercial ones, crowd-gathering events inspired by someone who wants to make money 3) Artistic festivals: they often have an international component, and inevitably need of some sort of public support and funding. These festivals are contributing to the development of the arts and to the evolution of the public’s perception.
Another classification, which recognises the most number of festival sub-groups, is made by Milena Dragicevic Sesic and Branimir Stojkovic, where different manifestations and festivals are treated almost as the synonyms (social-political manifestations, celebrations of important historical dates, commercial manifestations, sports manifestations, local manifestations as jubilees, etc). 14
Külli Hansen, one of the researchers on the project Festivals: Challenges of Growth, Distinction, Support Base and Internationalization identifies another important classification of festivals: according to the organizing body. In this respect festivals can be divided into two types. First, festivals initiated by the city, region, institution, etc., with the aim of increasing the popularity of the city, region, institution and the number of visitors and tourists. Second, festivals initiated by an individual or a small group of entrepreneurs. In the first case, festivals often have organizational boards established in the very first year, professional managers are selected and hired for organizing them and their budget is largely funded by the respective city, region or institution. In the second case, festivals often focus on a specific topic (sometimes very novel) and are aimed at a narrow audience. These festivals often start off with a modest budget and grow year by year along with their managers, until the city or the state starts supporting them over the years, once they have proven that they are able to survive.
Both types of festivals are expected to be professionally organized, have very good performers and create a positive image of the city, region or institution. However, festivals of the first type always have a greater guarantee of being sustained, especially when their preservation is of a special significance for the city or region where they take place. The management and survival of the festivals of the other type depends almost entirely on the visions of the festival manager. 15
14 M. Dragicevic Sesic, B. Stojkovic, (2003), Kultura, menadzment, animacija, marketing,p.157 15 http://www.fitzcarraldo.it/ricerca/pdf/ricerca_festival_tartu.pdf
19 Today’s festivals have different functions and many roles, depending on different aspects taken into consideration. Looking for covering all aspects and roles of modern festivals, we talk about cultural, economic, educational or social functions of festivals and upon their variety we differentiate the festive, promotional, political, educational or festivals with complex character, where this numbering can be much more layered, as well as their audience. In generally festival can be defined as artistic project with all of these implications named. Not just celebrating and having a review character, the festivals are being an extension of the cultural and social expression, offering the added opportunities, new recognised values and social engagement. 16 "Festivals link culture and entertainment with trade and economic growth, and have a social impact as well (strengthening the local community and identity, and through this, enhancing national solidarity, etc.)" 17 The latest version of festival functions is the political one , where festival usually serves to strengthen the position of the country, region, city and settlement, or for the propagation of certain ideas or trends. Many festivals were founded mainly by political reasons, as film festivals in Berlin and Moscow and from the same political reasons, the famous Biennale of Venice yet in 1930 has broaden its scope to multi-arts form festival. In the last time the emphasis of the festival is put on its educational role. Many festivals besides their official programme organise parallel work-shops, seminars, conferences on specific topic, profiting of the presence of professionals from different multi-cultural milieu and of interested concentrated audience. These types of festivals can influence all people involved as well as the institutions. In all these characteristics there is a common trait, which is the main speciality and also objective of the festivals: to deviate from the usual.
16 National Survey on festivals in Hungary,(2006) Festival World Summery Report, Budapest , (online), available: http://www.budobs.org/pdf/Festival_en.pdf (15 August 2011) 17 Ibid
20 1.3.1. Why are festivals so attractive?
"I can’t change the society!" But what we can do is to reach out to the individual. This is where festivals come in, offering artists the chance to create and audiences an opportunity to see their work. An artist’s work can challenge the individual.” 18 Galin Stoev, the Belgian stage director
Why is so interesting to attend a festival? There are a lot of answers which vary from person to person. But what is for sure from the beginning of human history is that people like to celebrate and share special moments together. Festivals provide a means to celebrate one culture and traditions, stimulating senses, and awakening creativity. It also allows us a time to reflect upon the significance of a season, historical event, or holiday. With festivals everyone can experience culture and can be confronted to art. A festival is pure opportunity and bears responsibility: towards the artists and towards the audiences. For artists a festival represents an international platform for a first try-out in front of a greater audience. For audience, attending a festival is to get to know new trends, to be confronted with the arts. This is the reason number one why we do festivals! To look into new forms of aesthetics, see new forms of partnership models. In generally festivals are those places where one can discover new performers, new audiences, unusual venues, unknown cultures, new points of view, new approaches to arts and the world, new social orders, new political discussions. The festivals should aim to that something new and exciting to discover. Nevertheless, festival has a way of delighting the soul in a way that everyday life seems to neglect. It can provide a certain childish freedom and escape from the “real” world. It is a pause from the monotony of the everyday work routine.
18 EFA session in the framework of the EU Forum, (20 October), http://www.efa-aef.eu.com
21 1.3.2. What should be the mission of festivals?
They reflect the world around them and thus their ultimate mission, as proclaimed by the EFA 19 should be "to build bridges of knowledge between the world and society, and bridges of mutual understanding between different individuals and communities, between different countries, regions and continents". Festival should be a communication tool, a platform for dissemination of artistic vision, ideas and work, all around the world. Opening the door for artists to create and for citizens to discover and participate in the arts has always been the main mission of festivals. Yet, today festivals face a major challenge: in our globalised world manifold roles and responsibilities are put on their shoulders. It seems that too often the success of a festival is measured on its market position: how much (new) public it generates, how much new audiences it attracts, how many new sponsors it gets, how many restaurants and hotels it benefits, and how much (economic) revenue it brings. Too often this becomes priority number one for festivals and also reason for public authorities to support festivals: numbers, facts and figures matter. And what should really count is the artistic impact one festival leaves, and that should count.
1.4. A phenomenon of festival overproduction
« N’y a-t-il point trop de festivals? Le public n’est il pas épuisé par le concept de festival? À l’évidence il y a une saturation de ce qui est devenu plus une formule qu’un état d’esprit. »
Bernard Faivre-d’Arcier, Comment donner un avenir aux festivals 20
Under the globalization and "democratisation" processes all-over the world there has been a creation of a large-scale of festivals as well as their proliferation. The festival (with cultural- artistic contents) forms and reforms itself through centuries, thus becoming one of the most used formats in which the presentation of culture and art is organized.
19 European Festivals Association, http://www.efa-aef.eu.com/ 20 Bernard Faivre-d’Arcier, (Feb 2001), Comment donner un avenir aux festivals,(online), available : http://www.efa-aef.eu/en/activities/efrp (6 Sept)
22 The notion of festival continues to widen which can be characterised as relatively new and it goes hand in hand with globalisation, civilisation of leisure time, big summer migrations, expansion of media. This large-scale of festivals as well as their proliferation, becomes a world-wide phenomenon which is defined as "festivalisation". It is the period after WW2 when a big turnover in production of festivals happened. Bernard Foccroulle, musician and director of Aix-en- Provence International Festival claims that, “Since the WW2 festivals have multiplied in Europe just as monasteries and cathedrals burgeoned in the Middle Ages” 21 . The production of artistic festivals after WW2 was related to the post war trauma. The principal of festivals was, in that time, to “enliven and enrich the cultural life of Europe and provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit” 22 . The great majority of post-war festivals organizers were underlining the international and especially the European dimension of these events. They sought to create platform of exchange and multilateral cultural collaboration and for rebuilding of empathy. The aim was to overcome political, ethnic, cultural and linguistic barriers. The reconstruction of common European cultural space was one of the most important effects of festivals’ coming to life and their quick, fruitful development. The turnovers of 1989 were the beginning of a “flood” of festivals on the Eastern side of Europe where festivals have become important instruments in overcoming the piled up ignorance between East and West and enhance mutual appreciation and collaboration . It is also worth mentioning that when Europe was still divided by the “iron curtain” into two separate parts the existence of arts festivals was particularly important. It is known that in every epoch, and especially in times of tumultuous changes and fundamental, deep, historical shifts, the need for large gatherings of people may manifest itself in many places and contexts. The fullest and most clear manifestations occur, however, amongst crowds participating in spectacular artistic events. This is because the art gives easy and complete possibility of uncovering the truth of our emotions, the direction of our thoughts, of guiding the development of our values. All this shared excitement tends to renew a shredded social fabric. 23
21 Bernard Foccroulle, (2008,)” At the heart of European identities”,in The Europe of Festivals, “ From Zagreb to Edinburgh, intersecting viewpoints”,Ed. Anne-Marie Autissier, Tolouse, l'attribute p. 11. 22 Celebrating Europe, conference: International festivals strengthening the civil society http://festivals.amu.edu.pl/about.html) 23 The EFA – challenges in times of diverging expectations (speech), www.efa-aef.org
23 According to professor Dragan Klaic the possible grow in number of festivals is related to artistic mobility, internationalization of artistic practices, structural restraints of cultural institutions, marketing and fundraising efficiency, competition among the cities, tourism boost and expected economic benefits. 24 As travel became easier, globalisation reached its zenith and the concept of tourism gained greater importance. Today tourism is more than ever used as a trick, i.e. excuse, for making a festival. According to EFA experts and research made, a festival does add some value to a destination and might make a difference. The fact that there is also a festival in a certain city might be an extra attractive reason for the potential tourist. But at the end festival doesn’t determine tourist season, it is just an added cultural value. Today it is easier than ever for artists to move from one country to other sharing new experiences thus creating a big market. This provides opportunities to make international cooperation, to present their performance and as such participate at one festival. One of good example of creation of festivals for marketing and fundraising purposes is creation of so called one-shot festivals which is increasing all over Europe. They are made to happen intentionally only once without any ambition for repetition, reoccurrence, longevity or institutionalization. Those festivals are certainly marketing and fundraising pragmatism.
Despite continuous grow of festivals and evident display of their complexity and diversity, there is surprisingly little research in the festival phenomena. The structure that permanently makes the research on festivals that accurately can be provided is the European Festivals Association as an international consortium of cooperating institutions. EFA aims to study the term “festivalisation” of the daily life in its Europe-wide manifestations and draw some conclusions, forecast trends and offer recommendations to festival operators, public funders and potential sponsors. Today no one can say how many festivals exist in Europe. Probably there are more than 3000 of them. The number depends on variety of one country’s economic, social or cultural factor. However, this number is not certain due to problem that most European countries are not covered by any official statistical data sources. 25 In fact it is really difficult to gain general or comparable data on festivals country by country and the Internet is the most important resource of information, but unfortunately not the most reliable one.
24 Dragan Klaic; (May 2007) Every Weekend A Festival! Urban impact of the festivalization of the daily life in Europe , EFA 25 Ilczuk D. and Kulikowska M.; Festival jungle, policy desert? - Festival policies of public authorities in Europe. (Jul 2008), EFA
24 In France during summer season, i.e. two months, more than one thousand festivals are taking place. „The proliferation of festivals is not without the risk. First example could be, the saturation“. 26 There are too many performances to see and experience during small range of time that which can be frustrating for a spectator since there is too much choice. The best example is the „off „programme of Avignon which offers 700 spectacles.
The most common remark is that festivals perhaps have a little influence on artistic development and that they aim to fulfil a range of different expectations. Festivals become more oriented to reproducing than producing artistic work. In this game they lead the art comes on second place leaving no impact on artists or local context. The true role of a festival is to help artists to dare, to engage in new projects", a phrase coined by Bernard Faivre d’Arcier, former director of the Festival d’Avignon. On the other hand with their rise festivals become more or less the same, using the imitative factor. They became routine with programme that fads. A festival should provide something new, innovative. This is the value all researchers from this field emphasize as very important. “And if a festival shows an extraordinarily innovative quality, it contributes to a special “certain something”! 27 Innovation leads to discussions, new interests, and a different public and helps to establish a reputation.
Today the raison d’être of many festivals is seen in their ability to create jobs and make profit. It is a fact that they provide jobs but in a fact great majority of them provide part time jobs and redistributing economic resources locally.
Twenty century festivals since Salzburg have been driven by a strong artistic vision. Their function was celebratory (glory, fame, excellence) and compensatory – to provide what the local cultural infrastructure could not deliver. The festivals had for mission to share, communicate and offer something new. “To Jean Vilar, the founder and director of Avignon festival, the festival was an excuse more for grouping young public and share with them the aesthetic and morale values, which he intended to promote.” 28
26 LE MONDE : „La folie festivals“, Edito du Monde, article paru dans l'édition du 01.07.07 27 Ibid 12. 28 Bernard Faivre-d’Arcier, « Comment donner un avenir aux festivals », www.efa-aef.eu
25 What remains today in the jungle of festivals is an enormous range of artistic formulae practices. In the period of cultural overproduction Dragan Klaic has defined festivals as condensed packages of associated artistic events, seeking to convey the sense of extraordinarily occurrence.
“…Much as we would like to think of festivals as unique and very special artistic events, we are too often frustrated with the pitfalls of the festival business, with its explosive wild growth, uniformizing pressures, and loss of individual profile and specificity of purpose, opportunistic behavior and imitative tendencies. We better acknowledge that many festivals today are nothing more than a slick formula.” 29
According to Klaic the proliferation of festivals has made the term almost meaningless. The F word has become a fundraising and marketing shortcut for any arbitrarily composed cluster of events, offered under a common title.30 Bernard Faivre-d’Acier in his article “ Comment donner un avenir aux festivals? ” claims that the notion of festivals became too wide, covering different manifestations under the name of festival. 31 With a quick succession of festivals in one place there is less and less space for celebration dimension making thus a festival a form of consumption of entertainment and leisure experience. Festivals move away from their real purpose and form.
1.5. Contemporary dance festivals
Contemporary dance draws on both modern and post-modern dance as a source of inspiration. Modern dance was born at the beginning of 20 th century in the time of breaking away from everything that ballet stood for. It was a time of new thinking and exploration. There was abruptly a new freedom in what was considered acceptable, what was considered art, and what people wanted to create. Ballet was perceived in the most negative light by most of 20th century modern choreographers such as Isidora Duncan who can be considered one of the pioneers of modern dance.
29 Dragičević Šešić, Milena; Klaić, Dragan, (2003/2004) Course reader: Management of performing arts and festival s, MA in Interculturalism, cultural management and cultural policy in the Balkans 30 Dragan Klaic: “Festival”, in Lexicon, Performance Research, 4, 11, 2006, 54-55. 31 Bernard Faivre-d’Acier, (feb 2006), “Comment donner un avenir aux festivals?”, online ; avalable : http://www.efaaef.eu/en/activities/efrp/
26 In the USA appeared first festival dedicated to modern and later to contemporary form of dance. It is American Dance Festival founded in 1934. Performances by professional dance companies, from the most experimental to the most established, remain at the heart of the Festival. Avignon festival played a role of festival which opens the door to new modern contemporary art performances such as dance. Since its establishment in 1947 till today this festival still hosts contemporary dance performances. In 1960’s post modern dance was born. This form of dance had a different approach to space as to the audience also like its predecessor. Very often in the post-modern theatre and dance, performances were staged in the space that is not theatre. It was important to move and destroy the border existing between the performers and the audience. Under the term contemporary dance are used wide range of techniques and styles and it is characterized by its diversity, and its diversified approach towards music, scene, space etc.
The 70’s were marked by the development of minority cultures, by the establishment of alternative art forms and by the discovery of contemporary expressions... However it was here and there that contemporary dance appeared for the first time in various festivals. One of the oldest festivals in Finland is the Kuopio Dance Festival in Savonia. In London one of the most important is the Dance Umbrella Festival in London, founded 1978. Contemporary dance was considered as new art form which was welcomed in festival such as, for example, the BITEF Festival in Belgrade in 1967. In 1981 contemporary dance week festival on Croatia took place for the first time. In 1997 a contemporary dance festival – Tanec Praha – was created in Prague. Key festivals like the Dance Week Festival was established in Zagreb in the ‘80s and local audience had a chance to experience the peak of international and local production at the time. The contemporary dance as a form of art found easier way to enter in the cultural life in Western Europe. For Eastern Europe it was and still is considered a young field and mostly not publicly supported.
27 CHAPTER II - CONTEMPORARY DANCE FIELD OUTSIDE THE CULTURAL POLICY IN SERBIA
2. 1. Cultural policy of contemporary dance in Serbia
Majority of the information about cultural policy of contemporary performing arts are collected from interviews with different actors from the field, since there is no cultural policy defined in contemporary performing arts. In Serbia the Ministry of Culture has overall responsibility for culture. In 2002 in line of the general policy of decentralisation was decided to share partially the role with the Secretary for Culture in the autonomous province of Vojvodina that is responsible for special issues of the cultural policy in the province. Some of the authorities on the federal level have been changed after the referendum on 21 May 2006 when Montenegro has become independent. On the local level there are City Councils in the 4 major Serbian cities: Belgrade, Nis, Kragujevac, and Novi Sad which are the key partners in cultural policy development. There are 164 municipalities that are developing local cultural policies. City Councils are playing an important role in developing cultural policy and facilitating participation in cultural life including maintaining a diversified network of cultural institutions such as theatres, libraries, museums and supporting freelance artists. The City Council of Belgrade has founded some of the most important international festivals and cultural institutions which are often of importance for the whole Serbian territory, e.g. the Theatre Museum. There are no specific laws for the performing arts and music. A Theatre Law has been in preparation for more than 10 years now, mostly dealing with labour issues (types of institutions, employment policies, etc.). There is a plan to place a Theatre Law in the group of other sub laws that will arise from the new Law on Culture which is in force since March 2010. 32 From the year 2000 the city of Belgrade has established few connections, which could be considered as main of the city’s cultural policy, but mostly referring to the theatre field. The most important thing to emphasise is that for state and local authorities in Serbia the theatre is in a way a synonym for performing arts, and less some other forms, like contemporary dance, performances, etc. The money from public sector is mostly spent on the theatre infrastructure, theatre productions and festivals. In generally the City of Belgrade is the most important
32 Ministry of Culture in Serbia is responsible for policies and strategies for cultural development, support for 34 cultural institutions, legal issues in the field of culture, protection of the cultural heritage, and regulating and preparation of the laws relevant to the media space http://www.culturalpolicies.net/web/serbia.php?aid=22
28 factor in international cultural cooperation, creating and financing the most important international events in Serbia for each domain of art (October Salon that few years ago become international and one of the most important events in the region concerning Visual Arts, FEST and international Film festival, BEMUS / Festival for Music, BITEF / Festival for Theatre, Belgrade Book Fair / Literature), as well as for different generations and types of audiences (BELEF / summer festival, The Joy of Europe / children's creativity, etc.). All of the interviewed actors from the field of dance agree that some changes in this field were visible after year 2000. Contemporary dance got visibility in the due to individual efforts of young artists. Several workshops for contemporary dance, held by prestigious contemporary dancers and choreographers from Europe took place in Belgrade from 2004. As dance got more on visibility and the dance scene started to foster, from 2006 till 2007, the City and the Ministry decided to support the project with small amount of money, but regularly. However, majority of funding still came from foreign funds. From these programmes and other small ones which promoted the contemporary dance, organised on the local level and supported from abroad, the idea for creation of the first organisation which would systematically take care of contemporary dance scene in Serbia was born. Thus in 2005 Station -service for contemporary dance was created, which was and is an NGO for lobbying and advocating for the contemporary dance. Station is imposing itself, implicitly influencing cultural practices. This NGO is very active in the regional and international collaboration. From that point things moved and it seemed that it finally came moment for this scene to become “accepted” from the local and public sector. During 2006, the budget share has been changed gradually and in favour of dance. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture allocated 900,000 dinars for launching Station . Besides this project several individual productions (in 2006 there were 5 productions) received funds, thus the overall budget reached 2.350,000 dinars exclusively devoted to dance field. In only one year the budget increased from 265,000 to 2,350,000 dinars for an increase of almost 100%. 33 The local and the state authorities decided to further help the development of contemporary dance by providing appropriate spatial conditions to the independent cultural sector since it suffers the most from the lack of basic conditions necessary for their work. At the end of March 2007, Station was among 5 independent cultural associations that won competition
33 Ana Alimpic, (2007) MA thesis, “Cultural animation and mediation of contemporary dance, between generic concept and local model”, Belgrade,
29 organized by Belgrade Youth Cultural Centre for project called “MAGACIN”. Station succeeded in resolving one of its essential problems by getting the space for work and its program activities. The idea of Station was to create a mini centre for contemporary dance in collaboration with other organisations. According to one of its members, Marijana Cvetkovic, Magacin was at the beginning a synonym for Station , but due to lack of money and no real support, the image didn’t last. With the intention to resolve the problem of space, in 2008 the project „Belgrade Dance Centre“ was initiated, in the frame of institution of culture „Vuk Karadzic“, financed by the City secretariat for Culture and municipality Zvezdara. The politic of the City was to invest the money in the infrastructure, i.e. to reconstruct formal house of culture „Vuk Karadzic“ and to confine the role of development of dance centre to the director of the institution “Vuk” in collaboration with Station and several individuals interested in the project. For that occasion Station made a study of interdisciplinary programme, with the aim to open the space for production and education. At the end no real progress was made between all the actors and the collaboration didn’t sustain. However, according to Ljiljana Tasic, dancer/choreographer, the city of Belgrade donated the money for all applied projects from the field of dance in 2008. This was a big turnover for the dance scene in Serbia, also because majority of projects came from the independent scene which was neglected. Ljiljana claims that this was for sure one of the best years for dance in Serbia. From 2009 the Ministry drastically cut the budget for culture. It was in generally due to world crises which didn’t bypass Serbia. The contemporary dance was no exception, in a fact; support for the projects from this field is smaller and smaller. Ljiljana Tasic, dancer/performer/choreographer, said that the Ministry is not really interested in investing in this field since it is very young and still in process of development. The state expects the results immediately. For development of this scene takes time, and it is certainly not a one or two year project. The Ministry of Culture on the other hand never managed to define the basic postulates of their politics in this sector. It was more oriented towards traditional dance forms such as ballet and artistic dance, institutionalisation, considering independent sector insignificant.
The dance education is poor. There are two ballet schools, at secondary level, located in Belgrade and in Novi Sad. In the beginning of September 2011, a new school for ballet was opened, more precisely new department of ballet school from Milano. The goal is to educate
30 ballet from very young age. On the other hand, the contemporary dance has been introduced in the curricula of the ballet school Luj Davico in Belgrade. There is no university level education that is fulfilling the needs of professional qualification in the fields of ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance nor choreography. For contemporary dance there are no other schools but several groups and classes in dancing schools.
The system in Serbia lies on representative model. City and national theatres, spend big amount of money on productions without new initiatives and without investment in artists, and on the other hand there is a presentation through festivals, in generally theatre one. Performing arts, thus including contemporary dance scene don’t have cultural policy defined, i.e. it doesn’t exist. Yet, it is visible that after year 2000 there were several good initiatives or starting points for the contemporary dance field. However, contemporary dance never got systematic or planned support from the state and never got officially defined cultural policy documents. Contemporary dance deals with lot of problems such as the lack of education, no defined budget or institutional support. All the achievements were done by individual efforts, or support by the organizations such as BITEF Festival, REX, Theatre Dusko Radovic, BITEF Theatre. Contemporary dance hols on few individuals, mostly from the independent scene, such as Station, Tkh, Per.Aer… The sector which started and is active in promotion and development of this field is civil sector, which doesn’t actively participate in the cultural policies; it has role of corrector or advisor in some points. Instead of public authorities, the civil sector undertakes actions and in cooperation with engagement of foreign cultural centres. This results with a lack of general, systemic policies and strategies, which would cause more impact of artistic and educational practices. In order to “survive” and create, dance artists are turning towards collaboration with foreign artists thus slowly leaving the country.
Dancer and choreographer, Dragana Alfirevic said that to her it seems that contemporary dance scene is more staging than going forward. She compared the contemporary scene to a political one. From the outside it seems that the contemporary scene is diversified but in a fact it is divided in two parts. First part which is centralised on few bigger cities and the other more territorialised, considering no change in power system. There is no change of
31 generations. Young talented artists are leaving the country and authorities do nothing about it. 34 Ljiljana Tasic said that five –six years ago it was possible to see several dancing troupes and artists from this field, there were a lot of workshops, yet today the contemporary dance is based on few interesting creative „moments“ just in Belgrade. In this situation it seems that there is not enough initiative for development of the dancing scene.
2.1.1. History of contemporary dance in Serbia
Many theoreticians agree that there is no real local history of contemporary dance of Serbia. However Ana Vujanovic 35 claims it differently. According to Vujanovic, what can be identified as the local dance history is fragmentary, discontinuity and non-teleological network of past traces of various bodily movement practices. Local dance history differs in many ways from the one of Western Europe or USA. This is for certainly relied to the general history of Serbia, the difference between the capitalist and socialist societies. Ana Vujanovic explains that emancipation of individual is not opposite to certain ideologies but rather to its particular principle. In socialist countries the common thing is idea of collectivism, in capitalism dominate the economic principle of private ownership. In capitalist societies contemporary dance was recognized as a high art practice of emancipation of the individual while on the other hand, practice of that kind was seen in social countries as a bourgeois luxury. In ex-Yugoslavia more popular were collective cultural practices such as “slet”, parades, folklore... 36 At the beginning of the 20th century, Belgrade still didn’t have a professional dance company. The civil society started to constitute at that time and dance didn’t have important role. The audience was in generally introduced to dance universe by watching “ballet blanc” by Russian troupes. It is after 1907 that this society got introduced with modern forms of dance from international dancers who came to Belgrade. One of the prominent names in that time on international dance scene was dancer Maud Allan who performed The Vision of Salome in Belgrade in 1907. This Canadian solo dancer evoked with her performance a serious interest,
34 on-line interview – 16 July 2011 35 Ana Vujanovic is a freelance worker – theorist, manager, lecturer, dramaturge – in contemporary performing arts and culture. She is a member of the editorial collective of TkH platform and chief editor of TkH journal. 36 Ana Vujanovic, “Not Quite-Not Right Eastern Western Dance”, 2007
32 foremost because of her nudity on the stage. First appearance of Zoula de Bonsat, the dancer from the Comédie Française , on the stage of the National Theatre in 1913, ensured the first professional musical-dance critics. At that time, Belgrade was, more or less; ready to accept modern dance as well. 37 The period before WW2 featured two essentials forms of bodily cultural practices in Serbia. The first was the work of the philosopher and choreographer Maga Magazinovic who was a student of Max Reindhardt, Elisabeth Duncan and Emil Jacques Dalcroze. Her vision of body emancipation was realized through a “new dance” combination of gymnastics, rhythm and feminism. Magazinovic introduced modern techniques and poetics of Emil Jacques Dalcroze, Rudolf von Laban, Isidora Duncan. She was an open book ready to explore. Her emancipative role was tremendous because she opened spaces for consciousness in people with her work and her idea, she made dance closer to ordinary people. The second form of bodily cultural practices in Serbia was the one of the pan-Slavic Sokol movement. The commitment to the human body was to build a healthy collective body and for the (Slavic) nation. Both paradigms entertained similar notions (health, body, physical culture...) but their ideologies differed: it was emancipation of the individual vs. workout of the collective. While Maga Magazinovic conceived dance art pieces for small numbers of performers, Sokol organized “slets”, cultural-sport performances for huge numbers of performers. Slet became official dance form gaining the biggest public visibility. Magazinovic opened a dance studio in Belgrade where her students continued her practice. Later on several various practices developed, from dance related to cultural-artistic society to the physical theatre of 80’s and 90’s (such as Dah theatre, Mimart ...) Without any doubt, these two paradigms left impact on bodily artistic and cultural practices in Serbia after WW2. They were reflecting the actual situation in the country under the communist regime, where everything was done in masses for the people. On the other hand there was this new modern wave slowly entering into Serbian society. It is in the 60’s and the 70’s that new tendencies, which in significant form introduced problem of the body in the art, appeared on the dance scene. These tendencies included performance art, body art, happenings and neo avant-garde theatre. The most significant names relied to that period are certainly Marina Abramovic and Katalin Ladik.
37 Ana Alimpic, MA thesis, “Cultural animation and mediation of contemporary dance, between generic concept and local model”, Belgrade, 2007
33 Here we cannot refer to dance in its actual sense, as it was rather dance piercing through other art forms and practices. Several decades later the conceptual influences of those artists are visible in the contemporary dance and more conspicuous than any coming from the ballet or amateur folk or popular dance. In the 1970’s and 80’s contemporary dance scene was under the auspices of the postmodern theatre. During the 90’s apart from individual efforts (Magazinovic, Mandukic, Vukicevic, etc.) independent cultural sector started taking part in shaping contemporary dance module. Dance was developing in generally in the frame of alternative theatre. The hybrid forms of theatre such as non-verbal, physical, dance theatre and theatre of movement as much as other numerous forms of experimental theatre and performance are being intersected with dance, fostering contemporary dance productions. Due to this fact, Serbian dance scene was founded mostly on the postulates of theatre anthropology, Brehtian theatre, Tanztheatre, theatre expressionism, street theatre, Buto and other Far East theatre forms and not from the contemporary western dancing scene.etc 38 The last slet took place in 1986, and it was still in a way representing dominant dancing form on the state level. The rupture with this form was in a way a symptom of social changes which resulted by already known events from the 90’s. In these times, contemporary dance wasn’t a priority, nor as a form nor as a content. Contemporary dance wasn’t accepted due to its programme and organisation which was opposing to the national oriented cultural policy of that time which was oriented towards investing into the past, i.e. into the heritage of the majority population in order to find or reinvent their national roots. Contemporary culture found itself in a void without any support from the system that could secure its existence and further development. The system in which contemporary dance scene found itself was a system where culture and art are seen primarily as commodities and not as a time space “consortium” in which socio-cultural capital is produced with new values. 39
2.1.2. Beginning of THE contemporary dance scene in Serbia
The independent performing art scene was and is highly significant and indispensable agency of cultural life in Serbia. After 2000 the new independent scene was created, called the other scene , opposing to the main one. While the other scene was ready for (needed) changes in the
38 Ana Vujanovic, “Not Quite-Not Right Eastern Western Dance”, 2007 39 Dragana Alfirevic i dr, (2011) “Nomad Dance Publication“, Skopje: Lokomotiva,.
34 field of culture the main one stood next to “traditional” values, supported mostly by the state. The gap between the two of them was getting deeper and deeper. During that period there were more artists ready to create networks and NGO’s were founded. At the same time the contemporary dance scene began its “real” existence, visibility and faster development. It developed mostly due to individual efforts and NGO’s. One of first real initiatives in this field was in early 2000’s when the NGO “Centre for New Theatre and Dance”(CENPI) carried out research and archives on the current local theatre and dance productions, hosting dance performances by Bad.co, Performingunit etc, other presentations and workshops. But CENPI was dismissed after a few years, failing to establish closer contacts with the dance community. Obviously it was too early. 40 However during 2000’s there were more and more choreographers/authors from the field of dance and mostly from contemporary one. Dance performed in the frame of alternative theatre during 90’s was acting through troupes and dancing groups while for contemporary dance scene of 2000’s was more characteristic individual artistic activity and occasional joining in projects. The new generation of choreographers of Serbia step on the scene, such as Dalija Acin, Dragana Alfirevic, Bojana Mladenovic, Isidora Stanisic, Dusan Muric, Olivera Kovacevic, Sasa Asentic etc. – however, a crucial necessity for constitution of a proper dance scene was missing. That necessity was being an organizational infrastructure – formation of an art institution. Contemporary dance slowly got on its visibility with organisation of several workshops by individual efforts, such as dancer/performer/choreographer, Dalija Acin, in 2004. Even with these workshops, contemporary dance performances appeared rarely as disconnected events in the organizationally or discursively empty field. Forum for new dance was founded in 2002 in Novi Sad as a project of National theatre of Novi Sad. Its program is oriented towards education and production. Its mission is to develop and promote contemporary dance on the local level. However this project is created for dancers from the theatre around specific (contemporary dance) performance, which is financed by the budget of the theatre. The contemporary dance workshops are organised with aim to present new techniques but the impact is really small, including only dancers from the theatre. After 2005 a new generation of young dancers and choreographers emerged; Dragana Bulut, Ljiljana Tasic, Ana Dubljevic, Marko Milic, Miona Petrovic, Aleksandra Bjelajac, Bojana
40 Ana Vujanovic, (2007)“Not Quite-Not Right Eastern Western Dance”,
35 Denic, Dubravka Subotic, Ivana Tabori, Milica Peric, Nenad Milosevic idr. Majority of these actors are still active today on contemporary dance scene.
Contemporary dance scene as a rather small but very persistent started recognizing its most powerful representatives and begins to gather around one mutual goal - to systematically cooperate and to create a more visible cultural policy focusing on questions of survival of this artistic field, artists affirmation, professionalism, serious education and further promotion. In order to attain this goal the initiative was launched to gather all members of the contemporary dance scene under the same roof. In 2005, Station, the first structure dedicated entirely to contemporary dance development and improvement, was established. This was the crucial moment for all dance practitioners. The Station was conceived as a service that will take care for the distribution and exchange of information, education, increasing of dance community and co-productions networking, as well as the local and international promotion of contemporary dance. 41 This organization will be presented later on as an important factor for regional context for contemporary dance development in Serbia and for creation of contemporary dance festival Kondenz. The ambitious project in the field of contemporary art represents the Regional creative studio “Jozef Nadj” 42 carried out with support of Serbian Ministry of Culture, provincial Secretariat for Education and Culture of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and County of Kanjiza in 2005. Studio “Jozef Nadj” is mostly dedicated to contemporary scenic forms, accordingly to contemporary dance. In 2008 another part of the studio was opened, one for accommodation of artists who come to work in the studio. The project is well supported by the Ministry of Culture; in 2010 the Ministry gave 1.400.000, 00 dinars for its programme activities. 43
One of the most important organizations in the field of contemporary arts is Walking Theory or Teorija koja hoda (TkH) . This organization was founded as group for theoretical and artistic research at the end of 2000 in Belgrade. TkH platform operates as an independent
41 www.dancestation.org 42 The creative studio leads Jozef Nadj, prominent theatre director and choreographer who was born in Serbia but emerged as an artist only in France. From 1995 he was the director of well known national choreographic centre in Orlean. Recently, however he decided to come back to his home ´town Kanjiza and to apply all the experience gained in France in his own country by constructing this regional creative atelier. 43 http://www.kultura.gov.rs
36 organization: TkH-center for performing arts theory and practice. 44 With its workshops, articles, magazine, round tables, TKH wants to reinforce the critical and experimental practices / discourses in contemporary performing arts in the local context, as well as to affirm them in a wider, regional and international context. For the contemporary scene this was important step. TkH has launched Critique that walks and Forum for critique of performing arts . Local theory of contemporary dance still doesn’t exist.
2.2. Festivals which promote contemporary dance in Serbia
The term “ festivalization ” could be easily used for describing the situation in Serbia today. The number of festivals is in constant grow and there are more manifestation that there should really be. There is no evaluation of festival audience at all; the interest of the audience is estimated according to the number of soled tickets. Even though, there are more theatre festivals than theatre institutions in Serbia; the number of contemporarily dance festival is extremely low. This is for sure due to the field of contemporary dance which is very young and not developed and certainly not supported.
In the 90s very important place for presentation of the contemporary dance were BELEF, INFANT and BITEF festivals. These festivals consecrated to new and experimental forms of performing arts are even today places where guest and local contemporary dance performances are integrated.
However , Bitef was for a long time the only spot for promotion of contemporary dance and bridging the gap between Serbian cultural field and this form of art. Openness of this festival towards innovative works, new ideas and vision from abroad was ideal for contemporary art performances including dance, to see. From its foundation in 1967 Bitef supports and generates the new tendencies and opens a space for a problematic thinking within art and culture which rejects the real socialism and does not accept the capitalistic consumerism .45 This festival was an only image of “openness” of Serbia, one “coloured” postcard. The first director and founder of this festival was Mira Trajlovic, along with Jovan Cirilov, realised that dance is really attractive form of art, something fresh and attractive to present. That’s
44 http://www.tkh-generator.net/en/platform 45 Ana Vujanovic, New Theatre Tendencies: BITEF (Belgrade International Theatre Festival)
37 how some of the much known names from contemporary dance scene performed in this festival, such as Pina Bausch, Martha Graham, Jan Fabre, Bejart, Holland ballet and many other choreographers and troupes. This was a first contact of Serbian audience with spectacular performances from abroad. With its program “Showcase” which started in 2005 Bitef gave opportunity to cutting-edge Serbian theatre productions that represent contemporary trends in performing arts. The contemporary Serbian performing arts scene is promoted within the European and wider international context and creates opportunities for Serbian artists and theatre companies to develop collaborative projects with partners from abroad. 46
In 1997 a first Festival for Choreographic Miniatures took place. The Festival of Choreographic Miniatures is an international competition of choreographers and it is presented annually. This festival is specially oriented on promotion of the contemporary dance and establishment of the recent choreographic trends. On the Festival of Choreographic Miniatures, international choreographers from Holland, France, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, France, and Korea were participating or applying since nowadays. Since its foundation, the Festival has offered unique opportunity to a large number of young choreographers to promote their choreographic style, ideas and method of work. To many competitors, the Festival has created a chance to begin further independent choreographic work. Some of the first Festival laureates are today established choreographers, who set their choreographers successfully on stages throughout Serbia and take part in education of the forthcoming generations of dancers and choreographers. 47 Page: 38
After creation of Station-service for contemporary dance the contemporary dance became more present on existing festivals and other manifestations (like Belef, Bitef-presented local artist performance in the main programme –Dalija Acin).
The first “real” festival of contemporary dance was established in 2004. It was Pro Tools a festival of contemporary European choreography initiated by the Wlaking Theory platform. The most famous names from conceptual dance from the international scene were performing in Belgrade such as Xavier Le Roy, Marten Spangberg, Mette Ingvarsten, and Tino Sehgal.
46 www.bitef.rs 47 www.koreografskeminijature.com
38 Aside the performance the focus was on interaction between the artist and the local audience. Unfortunately this festival took place only once.
From 2004 Belgrade got the biggest dance festival in Serbia and maybe in the region. Belgrade Dance Festival (BDF) is a festival where most famous dancers, choreographers and troupes can be seen. For the first time audience could see the biggest names from the ballet, modern dance or contemporary dance, at one place. BDF raised awareness about the dance and in a way opened a gate for dance in Serbia. However, BDF doesn’t select local contemporary dance pieces, neither is its program in real correlation with actual local scene. More details about this festival will be given in the text further on.
In 2008 a small contemporary dance festival was established by Station-service for contemporary dance; Kondenz . This festival is primarily focused on the regional scenes, but in the same time, the selection goes beyond the regional borders, trying to introduce other, different and rarely presented contemporary dance scenes. Kondenz is a result of Nomad dance Academy regional project for collaboration in dance. The goal of this festival is to introduce to Belgrade audience new, contemporary pieces from the field of contemporary dance and performing arts. The festival is used as a case study due to its philosophy and context which is something new on the contemporary dance scene in Serbia.
39 CHAPTER III - REGIONAL CONTEXT FOR CONTEMPORARY DANCE DEVELOPMENT IN SERBIA
3.1. Station- service for contemporary dance
As it is already mentioned in the Chapter III the contemporary dance started to foster after 2000. The post 2000 Balkan cultural context, in which Station appeared, may be described as post-transitional and “nation-building”-oriented, which was supporting and emphasising the traditional values that are supposed to help the new nation state shape their national(istic) identities. Around 40 dancers and choreographers from contemporary dance filed (mostly from independent scene) gathered in order to foster, structure and make visible the contemporary dance scene on local and international level. Lobbying and advocating before state authorities was the aim of those actors. The result was foundation of NGO Station-service for contemporary dance, in 2005. Station and Balkan Dance Network 48 (BDN) organized in 2006 a first conference regarding issues of contemporary dance. The conference was very successful having in mind the fact that this was one of the first events that gathered at the same place: local, regional and international experts for programs of dance education and youth programs, professionals and artists in contemporary dance, ballet and related arts as well as dance managers, representatives of Serbian Ministry of Culture and the authorities of all Balkan countries, cultural policy experts, representatives of art and cultural organizations and initiatives as potential partners of the project, dance critiques, theoreticians and journalists. Conference subjects were: Education as strategic player in achieving professional status of contemporary dance; new models of international/regional cooperation; models of financing and sustainability of independent projects. The aims of the conference were in a fact all the things Station is lobbying for: providing expertise and collaboration with the most experienced experts in the contemporary dance field; lobbying on local, regional and international level for support for educational projects;
48 Balkan Dance Network was created because their founders believe that by collaborating, exchanging information and lobbying – locally and internationally, they can build their competences and create a common front from where they can advocate for the acknowledgement and development of the art of dance in the Region. BDN is a network for contemporary dance within the Balkans which main activities include professionalization, promotion and development of contemporary dance, information exchange and education. BDN is a flexible and informal network of friends and collaborators, which provides its members with contacts and information. This network brings together choreographers, dancers, performers and managers.BDN was a foundation of Nomad Dance Academy. Station is a co-founder of BDN and its member. BDN does not exist anymore. NDA derived out of BDN.
40 development of strategies of financing educational and artistic programs; stronger visibility and promotion of contemporary dance; exchange of information at the regional level, initiation of national authorities joint support for contemporary dance; overview of existing and new cultural policy instruments for contemporary dance; getting information about existing funds for education and exchange in the field of contemporary dance. All participants agreed with the fact that introducing necessary measures towards setting up the new cultural policies that refer exclusively to contemporary dance is indispensable. The conference was carried out with the support of local authorities such as the Ministry of Culture and the City Secretariat as well as the European Cultural foundation.
This NGO has for aim lobbying and advocating for contemporary dance on local level. Station was the first organisation in Serbia to raise attention on the issue of cultural policy and contemporary dance. Aside lobbying and advocating Station is providing reasonable and professional working conditions to all active parties in the scene and creates conditions and atmosphere for healthy competition. 49 One of the most important things about Station is that is non selective. It serves and includes all active contemporary dance companies and individuals and especially newcomers currently existing on the scene. Its focus is on community needs rather than on producing individual artistic projects. After its establishment a lot of contemporary dance workshops were initiated with the most professional choreographers and dancers from regional and international level. The aim is to give possibility to young dancers to work, create and present. From its establishment Station has initiated several such projects: “Puzzle”, “Lab for new dance”, “Resonance”, “Crossart”, “Fostering creativity”. The most important one is certainly “Fostering Creativity”, as project created in an attempt to deal with the problem of broadening. They were series of workshops, trainings and consultations, which resulted in seven performances by new-comers, shown as works in progress in 2007, out of which the three best got the opportunity to be completed under professional conditions.
49 http://www.dancestation.org/
41 Nevertheless the most systematic alternative educational project is without any doubt – Nomad Dance Academy project initiated in 2008 as a collaborative platform that is addressing the need for higher education in the contemporary dance. Station sees itself as a communication tool on national but also on international level. With its open model based on bottom-up approach it establishes itself as a very important partner in the centre of Balkans for the exchange of information and potential future collaborations.
3.2. Nomad Dance Academy (NDA)
The period 2005 – 2007 was very important for the development of regional cooperation, as well as for the establishment of new links among different individuals and organizations active in the field of theory, practice, critique and management of contemporary dance, in order to foster education, professionalization and promotion of dance. In March 2005 the Nomad Dance Academy was initiated during the Balkan Express meeting within the frame of IETM conference in Belgrade. The education in the field of contemporary dance in the Balkan region was firstly addressed with a number of ideas and potential projects. Nomad Dance Academy pilot phase was created as a one-year set of activities which enabled the network of partners from the Balkan region to establish deeper connections. Since then, NDA have been realizing different parallel programs within the project, and planning Nomad Dance Academy as long-term sustainable collaboration.
The NDA is tailored to its participants’ needs and to those stemming from their respective environments. It is significant that NDA is from and for the people; its nature is closely related to those of the people who started it, and the development of the project has been conditioned by their own development and ability to learn and change. That’s why organization of this project is based on a horizontal, de-centralised model, with specific decision making-processes and information flow. The NDA is continuously dedicated to self- refreshing and reinventing of that model.
42 NDA is organised in following way: a) The decision making body/ DMB - includes all the founders and a number of invited members b) The artistic board/ AB - responsible for creation of programme, communicates with other bodies about all artistic and programme matters and selects participants of the Educational Programme. It consist of 3 members selected regarding their competences and interests c) The coordination office/ CO - a team of people whose duties include strategic planning, conceiving of certain segments of the project, administration, fundraising, and overall communication. It consists of 3 people who are selected like the people from the artistic board d) Local partners - comprise the NDA members of each of the six participants’ countries whose purpose is to implement and run the project on the local level. These organisations are: in Serbia – Station service for contemporary dance , in Macedonia Lokomotiva - Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture , In Bosnia-Herzegovina- Tanzelarija , in Bulgaria - Brain Store Project , in Slovenia - Fico Balet , in Croatia - Dance Center Tala). 50
The interesting thing about the NDA is its rules and principles created for better functioning: a) Principle of balance – balance between local and regional levels, between different parts of the programme, between artistic and managerial aspects of the NDA, in financial matters, etc. b) Principle of invitation – members of NDA have chosen rather to invite than to select people, because they believe that invitation is much better suited to the formats of their work. Each member may invite one new member every three years. c) The principle of empty space – every decision or segment of the project must leave some empty space for new initiatives and ideas – an unknown territory to investigate d) The rule of three – a practical rule for solving practical issues: three members of the AB, three members of CO, the main bodies in the structure, three main lines in the programme. Every position comes with three year term.
The philosophy of NDA is based on critical, self-critical, self-reflective and problem oriented actions. From its beginning NDA has grown into a platform were all the actions mentioned above are launched from the bottom. NDA uses this actions to influence the context and to (be)come new instruments of cultural policy. These sets of actions are developed in relation to the identified problems, or to the naming of problems, by detecting voids or gaps in the
50 www.dancestation.org; www.lokomotiva.org.mk; www.tanzelarija.org;www.brainstoreproject.com; www.tala.hr; www.ficobalet.org
43 system, such as the education, research, production, recognition and visibility of contemporary dance. Its motive is not only to possess knowledge, brought to something that lacks it, but to demonstrate that there is knowledge in everything you deal with; to show that knowledge is a precondition of action. 51 NDA sees itself as a tactical network established as intensive collaborative network, which performs concrete procedural actions and approaches to solving problems.
NDA sets of actions
NDA programme simultaneously operates on five interest areas, which focus on: - Education - Research programmes - Productions and co-productions - Promotion and - Cultural policies At the time of foundation of NDA there was no institutional or systematic education and almost no professional development opportunities for dance artists52 . NDA established an educational programme for young artists that enabled them to develop their own ideas, to discuss, to reflect and learn about production processes of contemporary dance. More precisely, once the young artists’ enrol in the programme, they learn live, work and move together during four month period. It is in a fact a four month extensive course of lectures, workshops, residencies, discussions and travel around the Balkans – Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia (the country partners of NDA). The aim is to encourage exchange, education and creativity in contemporary dance in the Balkans. Nomad also awards twelve month scholarships that cover tuition, travel expenses and accommodation during the four month period. Young artists are supervised by dramaturges, theorists and choreographers. Every June, Ljubljana hosts a festival, consisting of their productions, called Short Cuts. By 2010, the programme had three generations of participants.
51 www.antijargon.tkh-generator.net/2010/06/09/suvakovicen 52 In 2010, a group of Macedonian members of the NDA helped introduce the first university B.A. programme in ballet and contemporary dance in Macedonia.
44 There are only occasional off-programmes and projects and almost not one research programmes or residences alike in the Balkans. In collaboration with various European institutions NDA has introduced its research programme dedicated to artistic as well as cultural policy research.
Most of the artists had no opportunity to present their works in regional context. As these promotion opportunities were on a very low level, one of the main interests of the NDA during 2006-2007 was to create a series of promotional strategies, as the basis for understanding of dance. Out of these activities, five contemporary dance festivals have been initiated almost at the same time. These festivals communicate to each other and present their works by regional artists. It is important to mention that some of them are the first attempts to promote contemporary dance in their countries (i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina). Those are Pleskavica (Ljubljana), Zvrk (Sarajevo), LocoMotion ( Skopje), Antistatic (Sofia) and Kondenz (Belgrade). From the beginning the common aim as organizers of these festivals, was to promote contemporary dance and introduce it to the widest possible audiences, although through time they recognized the need to think about possible positions and functions of a festival. Each of them has autonomous programming, there is no uniform line of aesthetic thought promoted by these festivals, and they develop in different directions according to the specificities of the local contexts and audiences.
One of the goals of the NDA is building international partnership with organisations from around Europe which enhances the visibility of the Balkan dance sector on the international scene, developing discursive webs and spreading ideas within a larger context. NDA succeeded in realisation of that goal by becoming a member of Jardin d’Europe programme in 2007. 53 Through this programme NDA has supported the productions of emerging artists and also produced performances of the participants/students of its Educational Programme. So far, around 40 performances were produced by this programme.
53 Jardin is a European project dedicated to the establishment of a sustainable European infrastructure for the professionalization of emerging dancers, choreographers, dance administrators and dance writers. The main objective of Jardin d’Europe is to organise individual artistic projects liable to become a driving force in an emerging dance market throughout Europe. Jardin d‘Europe is supported by the European culture programme (2007-2013).
45 More recently NDA has decided to introduce a set of activities that support reflection: meetings, discussions, workshops, and research sessions to reflect, analyse and discuss the NDA’s results and achievements. The members of NDA consider this new space in the project a relevant practice for the current state of cultural discourse; it promotes critique, self- critique, non-scheduled ways of collective work. Creating such space for reflection and problem-solving would help dealing with the cultural policies that affect the performing arts field.
NDA is a bottom-up organized project that showed how through self organising and networking the condition of contemporary dance can be improved. This project is a chance to overpass the limits of small markets from the region. With its program this project offers possibility to present productions of young artists in each of six countries partners and further since it is collaborating with organisations on international level. NDA enriches the space and develops the culture of connection between the countries in the region.
46 CHAPTER IV- FESTIVALS AS MOVING FACTORS OF DANCE PRACTICES IN SERBIA
4.1. Kondenz dance festival
The context in which Kondenz was created could be described as a period of positive changes in the field of contemporary dance in Serbia. A larger context, i.e. Balkan region, has to be taken into circumstances, since Kondenz is a result of production programme of NDA. At the same time under this programme four other contemporary dance festivals were launched and all of them are collaborating in some points. This was important due to the fact that all the countries from the region deal almost with the same problem. In 2008 when the first edition of this festival was initiated the contemporary dance scene has already entered in more “stable” period, with more visibility for the contemporary dance (establishment of Station) and more financial support. At that time there was already a bigger group of younger generation of dancers formed and ready to express themselves. Starting point for creation of such festival was a fact that in Serbia and even in the region there are enough “bigger” festivals, which rarely present to the audience and local artists new contemporary dance performances which question dance.
Behind the organisation of this festival is the NGO Station but also lot of people from region since it was initiated by the NDA project. Kondenz is most similar to Locomotion festival from Skopje launched at the same time in the region. These two festivals have really similar concepts and they collaborate in many ways. Kondenz is also a platform festival, opened for exchange and collaboration. Behind the idea for this festival is a desire to give to young artist the possibility to work, explore, create and then present their work. By initiating this project and collaborating with regional artists, this festival showed its big entrepreneurial leadership. Kondenz placed itself on international scene by inviting dancers and choreographers from abroad to present their works and work with local artists. The mission of this festival is changing, more precisely it is evolving. From the beginning the mission is to promote contemporary dance in Serbia and to work on audience development, which is accomplished. At the same time festival is trying to detect what is missing in the festival map of Belgrade and Serbia and to respond to those needs. At the moment its mission is more focused on requisitioning of the festivals today and their limited duration and limited
47 impact on the local context. Kondenz is establishing itself on festival map of Serbia by filling the gap between big and market oriented local festivals of performing arts and local contemporary performing arts communities. More specific goal of this festival is to create the space for communication and dialog of various players from the field of the contemporary art .
Kondenz is dedicated to educating audience that does not have the chance to see this kind of works otherwise. Kondenz serves as tool for communication with the Belgrade audience. By launching this festival, NDA had for mission to include the wider audience, but also to move beyond the expectations of that wider audience, believing that an informed, involved and critical audience is the “driving” force of each scene together with its active members. The aim is to create audience heterogeneity and not just audience development and to create the common space for that audience. From the beginning the number of audience varies from 300 to 500 visitors per year. This information provides out of ticket sale and not on audience evaluation. According to its curators, the majority of audience is younger population, which is a target group. When it comes to media, this festival has a good coverage. 54 The curators of Kondenz festival recognized the importance of media in presentation of festival. According to the evaluation of the festival, from the beginning the number of media was in growth.
Kondenz festival is a small format festival. In generally it lasts from 3 to 5 days representing 4 to 6 works of dancers from the region and from abroad. For its curators the aim is to keep the format of this festival small because of easier adaptation to the mission. Its curatorial logic is that smaller, experimental productions, critical towards their specific environments, or questioning certain aspects of performance making, should visit Serbia more often. Kondenz doesn’t respect the rule of place or time. Its form is very flexible. Each year this festival takes place in different venues and almost on different dates. March 8-12, 2008 - Centre for Cultural Decontamination November 9-12, 2009 - KC Grad October 18-20, 2010 - The Bitef Theatre and the CC Rex
54 Details about the media coverage could be found in appendix
48 Kondenz is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Belgrade City Council for Culture, Swiss Cultural program and various foreign cultural centres. The state share in the budget of Kondenz is approximately 3.000 EUR 55 , with the tendency to make this share smaller every year. Due to lack of local support, the future of this festival is not certain.
This festival departed itself from commercial festivals; it brings to the audience something new and it puts the accent on art and not on the commercial program. This is the only festival in Serbia where audience can see performances which questions the dance as art. In this lies the uniqueness of this festival because it involves the audience who will reflect about the performance. The concept of this festival is focused on presentation of small cutting edge performances only from the contemporary dance scene. Its programme has variety of local, regional and international performances. Priority is to establish the connection on all three levels thus allowing dancers/choreographers to meet and work together. Among other things, the festival is averting the communication gap between international guest performances at the major festivals and Serbia’s domestic production in the field of contemporary performing arts. In that way this festival allows interaction between local and guest artistic scene. During the festival, variety of performing styles, poetics, dance formats, as well as potentials in merging dance with the other arts (performance art, the visual arts, concert music, happenings…) can be seen, thus provoking and challenging local artists to rethink their own frameworks. The choice is always on smaller work of art, in generally solos, presentations that are technically simple; often whose aim is to create special relation with the audience. This festival is not based on a strong program conception. its concept is flexible, opened for changing and evolving. In 2008 The curators of the festival have for goal to introduce to the Belgrade audience new and different works and inviting audience to learn about the stage in which contemporary performing arts are today, as seen by the festivals' programmers. In 2008, the format of the selected pieces was the solo, with focus on examining the nature of the solo itself. In 2009 the question this festival was dealing with what was dance and multimedia. The last, third edition of the festival presented younger generation of authors from five countries, traditionally focusing on the Balkan region. Specificity of this year's selection was in authors' research of stage presence and communication with audience. Never
55 Details about budget can be found in appendix
49 the less this festival, hosts works which question the very nature of dance, stretching the possible boundaries of dance and its meanings that are never fixed and is asking constantly:”Can this be dance, too?” The first three editions of this festival had more classical formats - aside the main programme, Kondenz offered workshops and master classes for dancers and choreographers. The curators of Kondenz are Dalija Acin, Dragana Alfirevic, Ana Vujanovic and Marijana Cvetkovic 56 .
Dragana Alfirevic claims that this festival is now passing the period of transition from the festival which was used as a presentation of the contemporary dance, its authors and certain artistic forms to the space for generating and exchange of knowledge. 57 From 2010 the curators of Kondenz make part of international group which deals with the questions of curating, programming and questions about meaning of the festival as form of expression and its realisation.
4.1.1. Who is a curator? How to define curating?
The name of the profession comes from the Latin ›curare‹ – to care for, look after, preserve. However, the history of the term comes from the visual arts. Hand-in-hand with the development of museums and galleries at the end of the 18th century emerged the profession of the curator, as Kustos, the custodian, who was initially responsible for taking care of the collection. After 1945, this area of activity was widened as a result of the growing number of exhibition and collection spaces, as well as of the expanding art market. In theatre, this profession appeared about ten years ago, when curators started working in position of dramaturges. Curator role is defined as a mediator who sets a link between artists, institutions, politics and the public. He acts in order to open up the debate, create friction and act as catalyst for relationships. He should be there to recognize the intersection points of different registers; artistic production, theory, local context, wider context; and make them visible in a certain
56 Dragana Alfirevic a program coordinator of STATION Service for Contemporary Dance Belgrade and selector of the festival Kondenz ; /Dalija Acin a dancer/performer/choreographer,/ Ana Vujanovic a theoretician, freelancer from the field of performing arts 57 On-line interview – July 2011
50 context. The curator is the one who does the inviting and his activity therefore also encompasses acts of hospitality and generosity. The task of the curator has been subjected to a striking historical change. Today, the term and the field of knowledge has expanded to include everything from fundraising and engaging in cultural politics, commissioning new artistic work and contextualizing existing work, producing discourse around the artistic work, designing how the spectator experiences the artistic space, and even performs. In recent years the concept of the curator has become more and more influential in the performing arts. The discussion on curating in the contemporary performing arts has been developing the last 5-10 years, and has lately been manifested and further disseminated through various publications, conferences, workshops and festivals. But while it has been heavily discussed and theorized within the visual arts, the function of the programmer, producer, and curator in the performing arts remains strangely un-debated. Even though programming in dance, theatre and performance has undergone fundamental changes over the last decades there are barely any texts that reflect on its specific role in art production and reception. Yet, the first publication on the theme “Curating in Performing Arts” was published in November 2010; it was an edition of the Croatian magazine for performance ›Frakcija‹ 58 .
For the last edition, which will take place from 21th of October to 25 th of October, the festival will be created in co-curating with Locomotion festival from Skopje and Hybris Konstproduktion 59 from Stockholm. The idea was to rethink the context through direct cooperation and open concept which erases the limits of authority, festival and territory. Its curators want to open the questions of co-curating, of giving a different kind of space to their colleagues, curators, performers, choreographers, managers, critics, audience and theorists, who work in different contexts, to come and propose what and how they would like to make it. The idea is to create a festival which will have for aim questioning the meaning of festival in general, its position in the society and finally a festival which aims to self reflection. The idea for curating is based on believe that the discussion on curating as an intersection between artistic, economical and political practices is an important one, one that allows to be further investigating and elaborating. How artistic proposals in an increasingly globalized market are invited, selected, distributed, financed, put in relation to each other and presented
58 http://www.cdu.hr/frakcija/55/index.html 59 http://www.hybriskonst.org/en
51 to an audience has a fundamental impact when it comes to what kind of art is produced as well as what kind of artistic and intellectual discourses and communities are nurtured. Not to mention which artistic proposals can meet the audiences of a certain local context, and what this meeting can produce. The artistic choice, and thus the result of any curatorial practice, is deeply intertwined with, and framed by, parameters of time, money, collective processes and cultural clashes. The urge to set up a program that deals with the question of curating came from a wish to experiment with an issue how a festival can be collaboratively organized and presented. On the one hand, most festivals put emphasis on showing the works of a few established or emerging artists. Festivals thus often promote homogenization and commercialization of the distribution of art. In order to make this possible, the curators of Kondenz have invited performances/pieces which they find particularly interesting and important to share in the local context. In addition to this, The Curatorial Program has been initiated, with a group of 15 specially invited artists, theorists and curators from the Balkan and Western European regions, for which they believe, have an interesting combination of artistic and discursive practices and experiences, as well as a relation to thoughts of curating. They are invited to act as co-curators and as such to submit proposals; pieces, practices, situations, discussions, games, meals, reading sessions etc. The proposals can be individual or collective, existing or new or in process. The aim is to create, through this format, a space which is nurturing for both the artistic communities, for the public, and for the discourses that we collaborate develops around what performing arts can be and do.
52 4.2. Belgrade dance festival
Belgrade Dance Festival is international manifestation which presents the world famous and significant ballet and contemporary dance companies, choreographers and current world productions. The history of this festival starts in 2004 when it was launched on the initiative of International Dance Council of UNESCO (CID). The founders of the festival are Aja Jung 60 and Nebojsa Bradic, former minister of culture. The director and selector of the program is Aja Jung, while the process of planning, organization of domestic and international promotion, is done by the embassies and foreign cultural centres, Ministry of Culture or other institutions and foundations of the countries participants of the festival.
When Aja Jung was appointed as a president of national committee for dance under UNESCO there was not a lot of the dancing scene in Serbia. There were few festivals presenting dance and no audience, except smaller group of people (mostly young) interested in ballet. The idea for creation of this festival came out Aja’s personal need and desire. As a former ballet dancer, her wish was to continue to communicate with the audience through dance language.
Her mission was to establish the connections in the field of dance, and to try to catch up with the missed years of dance performances which grew outside the borders of Serbia. At that moment the most adequate thing, according to Aja, was to promote and popularise the dance through finished product. This meant to invite the best dancers, choreographers and troupes to perform so the audience could experience something new to them and try to see what is presented elsewhere. The main goal of this manifestation is the popularisation of dance, education of audience, professional dancers, choreographers and critiques, the exchange of programs and intercultural cooperation, coproduction with theatres and troupes from the region and involvement in cultural project and programs of European Union.
First BDF took place in April 2004. Even though this first edition was small with only seven performances (from Macedonia, Slovenia, Russia, Israel, Greece and Italy; Albania cancelled in the last moment). From that first moment the festival has succeeded to create image of it as unique event, dedicated to the dance in the region.
60 Aja Jung is a former professional ballet dancer ,choreographer, president of national committee for dance under UNESCO.
53 With its second edition BDF showed that it is capable of presenting the biggest names from the dance scene. The biggest attraction was the performing of the National ballet from Paris Opera. From that moment festival established itself on the international scene and especially on the local scene. As the years passed, BDF continued with faster rhythm. From that period, festival has grown into the world famous and respected manifestation developing the cooperation with the most prominent dancers and choreographers. This kind of festival was missing in Serbia. BDF was developing the visibility of the city of Belgrade.
The criterion of the program selection is based on directors’ experience in this field and on personal connections/recommendations. In generally performances vary from ballet, modern dance to contemporary dance, between the mainstream performances and completely new productions from the international dance scene. BDF doesn’t experiment with its concept. During eight years of its existence, festival had succeeded in inviting the biggest names in the field of dance, such as Niv Sheinfel Dance Company from Israel, Alias from Switzerland, Holland dance theatre, Pretty ugly tanz from Köln, Cullberg ballet from Sweden, ballet from the Milan scala theatre, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Emanuel Gat Dance, Royal Balet of Flanders, Goteborg Ballet, Random Dance Company, ballet dancers Mihail Barišnjikov and Ana Laguna and many more.
During the 8th edition of BDF some of the performances took place in Novi Sad and in Zrenjanin. With this act, BDF has shown that it means seriously in spreading outside the city of Belgrade thus “touching” the sensitive issue of decentralisation of Serbia. Apart from the main program oriented towards the wider audience, there is a side program dedicated to education of dancers, dance pedagogues, choreographers’, critics and everybody related to the field of dance. It consists of master classes, workshops, and round tables. Round tables are presented as direct dialogue between artists, managers from the field of culture; choreographers...These events are also used as lobbying activities for development of dance field. The concrete example is the round table which took place in 2009 in Ministry of Culture where the representatives of Cullberg ballet and Swedish institute lobbied directly for opening of the “house of dance” in Serbia, idea launched by the BDF. Unfortunately this project is still not realised. The last edition of this festival organised seven day workshop for children who attend ballet schools in Serbia. The project was led by dance pedagogues Frederic Olivieri and Jocelyn Bosser from “Milan scala theatre”.
54 BDF has established good relation with the ballet school “Lujo Davico” from Belgrade. There is an official agreement between the visitor troupes and the school regarding workshops. Guest dancers present new techniques and streams in the dance to the students of this school. Since there is no higher education in the field of dance this is good opportunity for dancers, artists and pedagogues to learn. At the beginning, BDF organised workshops for professional dancers from the National theatre but the interest was so low that the program was cancelled. There are also film projections or exhibitions taking place. Till now there were two exhibitions, one in 2007 dedicated to the ballet dancer Milorad Miskovic, and the other dedicated to the ballet of La Scala (italian: Teatro alla Scala ), Milan scala. There were also two film projections in 2008 and 2009 presented under the project the Belgrade Dance Screen which has an informative and attractive concept.
Even though there was always intention to attract wider audience, at the beginning festival was aiming to attract the professionals from the field of dance. In its mission BDF is aiming to make dance accessible to all, through the education of young and professional dancers as well as audience members. There are no specific target groups, or as its organisers say, it is made for all who love dance, but the aim is however to attract the younger audience, which is ready to experiment with new forms of art, such as contemporary productions, very often on the border of the classical theatre and theatre of movement. But on the other hand the young audience is target group of companies which are the biggest sponsors of the festival. The number of audience is growing each year. According to Milena Radovanovic around 8000 people visited first edition of BDF, while on the last one there was around 13500 people. There is no evaluation of audience, so there is no detailed information about the audience profile.
Behind this big festival is a small group of people with only 3 permanently employed, and big number of volunteers. The team consist of director, coordinator of production and PR manager. There are three external associates hired several weeks before festival. Team works without the office, as its members like to say, “virtually”. Even though the situation is like this, there is a vision all the members’ share, task division and time frames in which the job has to be done, claims Milena Radovanovic, member of organisational team.
55 The program of festival is prepared at least eight months in advance, or even for some famous troupes, years ahead. Festival duration is up to two weeks and always in April. It takes place in same venues every year, such as Sava Centre, Atelje 212, Yugoslavian drama theatre, Belgrade drama theatre...
BDF was organised as a non-profit organisation and was mostly financed by the sponsors with the help of state institutions. This last refers to the Ministry of Culture and City council for culture who were donating money on the yearly competition. However, from the beginning festival was relying on the money from the sponsors (the biggest sponsor of BDF is VIP mobile). The cooperation with the institution started in 2007, when the potential of the manifestation was recognized as something worth investing in. In November 2010, BDF signed a protocol of cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and by that it confirmed its position and significance for cultural life of Belgrade and Serbia. 61 Agreement is signed for the period of three years, from 2011 till 2013 which will enable bigger financial support of the festival. This year the Ministry of Culture gave 7 million dinars to the festival. 62 With this agreement BDF achieved guaranty for its future and also obliged itself to continue presenting the mainstream productions.
4.3. Comparative analysis of Kondenz dance festival and BDF
After both of the festivals were presented and analysed, the comparative analysis is made in order to distinguish differences between two completely different models of festivals from the field of dance. Also these are two most known festivals in Serbia, from the field of dance with different approaches and influence on contemporary dance. Through comparative analysis parameters like mission, format, audience, concept and budget will be put into context.
61 http://www.kultura.gov.rs/?jez=&p=5976 62 Approximately 70 000 Euros
56
PARAMETERS KONDENZ BDF
- presentation of small cutting-edge - fill the empty dance scene by performances from contemporary dance presenting international dance - fill the gap between local, regional and performances (modern dance, ballet, international dance scene contemporary dance...) MISSION - forms and re-forms itself according to - place itself on festival map as the the needs of local scene; biggest dance festival in Serbia and - to create the space for all actors region involved in the festival for creation and exchange of knowledge - small format, 4-6 performances (from - from 12-16 performances (from 10 FORMAT 4 to 6 dancers/choreographers) to 12 troupes) - from 3 to 5 days - up to 14 days - flexible - no audience evaluation - no audience evaluation - from 300 to 500 visitors - more than 13000 visitors AUDIENCE - aiming to audience heterogeneity - aiming to audience development - target group: younger audience - target group: everybody who - active, invited to react and reflect love dance - passive, no communication - small budget – from public sector, - big budget – mostly sponsors, BUDGET foreign cultural centres – average 6000 public sector (from 2007; in 2010 an Euros agreement on cooperation signed – approximately 70 000Euros) - open for transformation - presents only mainstream - focused on presenting performances international dance performances from young local, regional and (the most known troupes, CONCEPT international artists choreographers, dancers, - small technically non demanding performances) performances - doesn’t experiment with - questions the very nature of dance programme
It can be concluded that the mission of these two festivals is without any doubt audience development and education of audience about the dance since they are the only two festivals in Serbia presenting the art which is on the margins of cultural scene. BDF has completed its mission of audience development and positioned itself on the regional and international festival map, as one of the biggest dance festivals. Kondenz also fulfilled his mission but more through collaboration between these three levels. It is certainly filling the gap of collaboration between these three levels. This is one of values of this festival.
57 Kondenz is a small format festival and in the correlation with its mission, it wants to stay small, small format gives it opportunity to stay flexible, opened and ready to adapt to the dance scene. BDF is totally opposite; it wants to be big, known and mentioned. It is certainly presenting itself as a spectacle, a place to be.
Even though there is no audience evaluation in neither of these two festivals, the number of audience is measured by tickets sale and audience profile by observation from organisers or media. The result is again big difference between these two festivals. With the ticket prices BDF makes selection of audience which are (for the Serbian standard) expensive. During this festival a majority of audience belongs to so called “elite” public (politicians, singers, actors, layers, doctors...). While Kondenz aims for audience heterogeneity, one that will be opened for communication, discussion and questions, which are achieved by selection of the performances. Kondenz develops active audience while BDF has passive audience.
BDF is from the beginning mostly relying on the money from the sponsors (the biggest sponsor of BDF is VIP mobile). However it is also funded by the state from 2007 with huge support from recently signed protocol of cooperation with the Ministry of Culture. On the other hand Kondenz dance festival is small budget festival. Maximum budget is around 6000 Euros. It is supported by the state and donors; in generally foreign cultural centres, such as French institute from Belgrade, Swedish Embassy, Goethe institute, Swiss cultural programme...this festival doesn’t have sponsors. Yet the difference in funding these two festivals from state is big. The question is imposing why one of them is founded with a lot of money while another is getting just enough to survive? One of conclusions can be that in Serbia the contemporary dance field is not recognized as important. Since this is a new field it takes time to become stable and by getting there it needs the support of the state. On the other hand, BDF became a famous festival, a brand of Belgrade and Serbia. The state sees it as a good investment because it brings visibility and positive image of Serbia on national and international level. But what is really being funded here? BDF is not cooperating with the local dance scene, since there are no local artists who present, share and create side by side with the very famous choreographers and dancers. It might be that the success of festival in Serbia is still measured by how much (new) public it generates, how much new audiences it attracts, how many new
58 sponsors it gets, and how much (economic) revenue it brings. Yet the real impact that festival have is artistic one. While the future of BDF is certain, the one of Kondenz is unsure. It is obvious that Kondenz is not aiming on big budget but without certain amount the concept of festival will have to be changed and work could not be done. Thus its curators are constantly rethinking if this is the game they want to play, what their real contribution can be and can they contextualize their work.
Both of festivals want to present new and good performances, but again in different context. BDF is searching only the biggest names, biggest troupes, the most famous international performances, while Kondenz presents smaller performances. This is due to small budget on one side and on the other due to their experimental, conceptual nature. They are not so technically demanding and because of it they leave space and energy for questions which is in a fact the basic role of contemporary art in generally. The other big difference between them is that Kondenz presents local and regional performances, while BDF is just oriented towards international collaboration. Presentation of performances from the region has other important aspect such as cutting across the political and artificially made borders, connections of small markets, artists networking, and exchange of information. All of these activities allow getting the information about the other projects and ideas from the region.
Opening the door for artists to create and for citizens to discover and participate in the arts has always been the main mission of festivals. Kondenz and BDF, without any doubt, open the door to the dance world thus educating audience about different forms of dance. They are mapped on the cultural and dance scene of Serbia and both of these festivals use their purpose for presentation and popularisation of dance. Does audience participate? As explained before, audience in BDF is passive; it participates as observer, while Kondenz aims towards active and emancipated audience. 63 Station reveals new generation of local talented dancers and supports them in their development thus developing the local dance scene. Through Kondenz they present their work to wider audience thus making them more visible.
63 Jacques Ranciere, 2008, The Emancipated Spectator, La Fabrique
59 Kondenz brings a sense of “European” image of Belgrade cultural space. On regional and international map, Kondenz is a point of connection between similar actors, organisations, the point of exchange of information and experience. By creating/inventing new approaches, programmes, by criticising the content and by exploring new models and forms of production, Kondenz establishes itself in a different light from other festivals. Kondenz dance festival presents itself as a communication tool, a platform for dissemination of artistic visions, ideas and works. It communicates with other actors from different field of art, like theatre, visual arts, theatre. For example, Bitef Dance Company and Bitef theatre provides space for rehearsals and performances to take place. Kondenz questions and re-questions its meaning as a festival in the context it finds itself. This makes it more attached to the local scene, to its needs, to problems it has and thus making it active to interact and influence. Its model is not new, but it is more new in a sense that it explores and questions the notions like new, meaning and significance of the role one festival has. It is constantly evolving, thus creating a space for interaction and exchange of information and generation of knowledge. These are the bases for exploring the model this festival wants to become
60 CHAPTER V – POSSIBLE NEW MODEL OF FESTIVAL
5.1. What are new curating practices?
In the organizational structure of one festival, the roles are generally divided. Programmers are responsible for choosing the program based on their professional experience and knowledge, artists are there to present their (finished) product and public at the end comes to consume that product. Since there are too many festivals today, the audience finds itself running from one festival to another. Generally its role is passive, conservative, without possibility to express its opinion. Running around from one festival to another is also one of the activities of the artist. Generally an artist comes to a festival and stays minimum time necessary to execute the plan they came for (a one-sided performing in general). Soon after they go to another festival and thus have no time to really have any influence in the context where they presents work, as the limited time and often limited procedures of the work do not allow that. At the same time they did not really get to influence the visited place, and they cannot have any significant influence on their own context, because they are spending most of the time in going from one festival to another. Programmers, artists or audience don’t communicate enough or not at all. It is either because of lack of time or space or lack of interest and no habit to do so. The role of curator is to mediate between all the actors involved. As contemporary art practice evolves, the role of the curator is shifting. Ideas about the relationships among art, stages or places for performances, and audiences are changing, and the way that art institutions are structured and administered is becoming more complex. New curating practices in performing arts today go beyond curating. One practice that grew out of the “new” style of programming is called curating as environmentalism. It is about curatorship that tries to redefine the boundaries put up by the institutions that were built for the production modes of autonomous artists. New curating practices are dealing with the role of curator and other actors he is involved with. More precisely it is about curating in which the role of the programmer and the role of the artist start to intertwine. The main idea in this new practice is about letting go of the role curator has and losing “power”. Curators still shape the timing and the situation of the event, but not the content frame that has to be filled.
61 Today in performing arts scene the transition is from curating the artists, over curating the art works, towards curation of the space, of a social body, shared by artists, audience and programmer. The curatorship is focused on potentials for exchange and sharing, on invitation of all actors to rethink the nature of arts from within. The new form of curating can also been observed as non-curated, meaning providing space and time for all the actors invited to share, discuss; where things are neither programmed nor foreseeable. It is about encounters between the people (whose roles become interchangeable) and objects, thoughts and ideas shared in one space that is opened for all of them to model, remodel, pick up and leave the impact.
5.2. Proposal of new model
Today festivals appear as presenters, or more precisely reproducers of artistic product. Those festivals don’t influence the local context, leaving no impact on community or on performers/artists. There is neither moment nor space for reflection or contextualisation, but pure presentation or representation of the work of artistic product. However there are also festivals that are initiators, discoverers and co-producers, enabling lasting partnerships. Their function and role base on other principles; sharing, connecting, developing and providing new approaches to art, to society and to festivals themselves. Festivals can also have a form of space, a platform which provides for all the actors involved in the festival a possibility to directly communicate, expressing their attitudes, ideas and (critical) opinions, thus generating knowledge. These festivals that experiment with their form and concept, thus re-forming them make a good model (experimental) which could be applied on many other festivals. Thus main basis of possible new model is production of knowledge versus reproduction of artistic products. The main idea is to create an open space where artists, programmers, curators and audience will interact. The process of joining is based on invitation, rather than on selection. The space in which the actors intervene is actively created and in communication with the local context; it allows deeper communication with the local actors, situations, infrastructures and at the same time reflection on this context and possible impacts on it.
62 All of the invited actors renounce their roles so the main accent is put on the process of dialogue and creative mental work. Curator is fixing the frame of time but not of the content. The content stays opened or half-opened and it is formed at the place of interaction. As the space serves for suggestions, critics, questions and ideas, it transforms itself into a platform. Without any doubt all of the actors involved are learning, they are giving and taking the information and thus generating new knowledge. By posing and asking questions, rethinking the model and reflecting about the concept, the participants form the space for generation of knowledge. Artists change their roles by presenting the process of creation of his work and not just the final product which provides time and space for its modification, suggestions and evolving. For artist this is a possibility to self reflect on his work. By asking questions, reflecting and suggesting its ideas the audience gets the possibility to move from the labeled passive role it has and become active. It also provides to it the role of coauthor and certainly someone who will become conscious of the mechanism of self education. All of the actors are confronted with the serious challenge to get affected by the circumstances, to actively open up to this potential change.
Deriving out of these practices we could say that the possible new model of festival is the festival which is based on bottom-up approach. It is formed as a platform where various actors intervene thus opening the possibility for everybody to join. It is based on open communication and without “strict” division of roles, i.e. on horizontal level. The ideas are launched from the bottom. Actions from this approach affect all the involved participants. The festivals that are created from the bottom up through a programme practice can develop a policy of varieties, decentralization (in the sense of organization and programme), solidarity, can be based on self-organizing processes and by that can provoke a creation of space where the context, in which the contemporary art is created, will be critically contemplated. 64
64 Milena Dragicevic Sesic, from writing: New meanings of artistic festivals – “artivist” practices and festival ethics in traumatized society – bottom up cultural policy, from lecture in Poznan.
63
Recommendation of a possible new model:
- Bottom – up concept festival (Self-organization – entrepreneurialism; horizontal decision
making process)
- Based on new curating practices (roles are interganging)
- Festival as a platform
- Process of joining based on invitation and not selection
- Actively created space for exchange of ideas, critiques, knowledge
- Created space in communication with the local context
- All the participants (programmers, curators, artists and audience) active in the process
- Interchangeable roles
- Focus on creative mental work
- Opened or half-opened content – formed at the time of process
- Flexible, opened and experimental model which can becomes easily applicable
64 CONCLUSION:
Festivals have a privileged position to provide the means for everyone to experience culture. Its greatest value is to be different, innovative, and productive. They open doors to new artistic forms, new performers, new audiences, unusual venues, unknown cultures, new points of view, new approaches to arts and the world, new social orders, new political discussions. They inspire citizens through the arts, challenge and offer them occasions to broaden their horizons; help deconstruct stereotypes; promote a creative society that sustains and develops quality of life, social well-being and equal opportunities for all; and boost geographic, social and generational solidarity by bringing people together through inventive and participatory initiatives.
The festival form is used and reused for various purposes, becoming nothing more than a slick formula 65 . The fact is that there are too many festivals today all around the world. The number is unknown, because there are no official data from each country. The only “reliable” resource is the internet. Nevertheless the festival value is measured in numbers. If one festival was visited by a big number of visitors, if it had big media attention and a lot of sponsors, it is considered as successful one. Festivals are more and more considered as conformist resuming and attracting, and not something that establishes new practices and models.
Festivals are created for short time period, disappearing soon leaving almost no impact behind. We all run from one festival to another, eager to gain new experiences, to be confronted to something new.In the logic of today’s society festivals became those places of “search” for new artistic works and nothing more than that. In that context, artists spend most of their time on travelling, presenting their work without real possibility to influence local contexts. They don’t have time to be involved in exchange, to learn something. By creating/inventing new approaches, programmes, by criticising the content and by exploring new models and forms of production a festival changes its meaning and purpose.
Festival can be presented in a form of a platform, where participants, in generally passive, become active through the process of direct communication. The space they share becomes a
65 Adopted from professor Klaic
65 platform where they bring their opinions, make questions, express ideas and attitudes. The shared knowledge is re-questioned, criticized, and modified thus constantly producing itself. The participants are free from their previous roles, thus creating another space for each of them to reflect and what is most important self-reflect. The unexpected product and informal encounter of this model is what it’s makes it interesting. The boundaries between “performance” and “daily life”, between production time and performance time, reevaluating the value of the moment, of the difference between “full” and “empty” time become blurry. The form of festival is flexible, opened and experimental thus it becomes easily applicable.
.
66 BIBLIOGRAPHY:
♦ Alimpic, Ana (2007) MA thesis, “Cultural animation and mediation of contemporary dance, between generic concept and local model”, Belgrade ♦ Autissier, Anne-Marie, (2009) The Europe of festivals. From Zagreb to Edinburgh, intersecting viewpoints.., Toulouse: Editions de l’attribut, Paris: Culture international Europe ♦ Cohen, Selam Jeanne, (1988) Ples kao kazalisna umetnost, Cekade, Zagreb, ♦ Cezare Molinari, (1982), Istorija pozorista, Vuk Karadzic, Beograd ♦ Dragicevic Sesic, Milena; Klaic, Dragan, (2003/2004) Course reader: Management of performing arts and festivals, MA in Interculturalism, cultural management and cultural policy in the Balkans ♦ Dragicevic Sesic, Milena; Stojkovic, Branimir (2003) Kultura Menadžment Animacija Marketing, Beograd:Clio ♦ Dragicevic – Sesic, Milena and Sanjin Dragojevic, (2005) Arts management in turbulent times: adaptable quality management, Boekman foundation ♦ Dragana Alfirevic i dr, (2011), “Nomad Dance Publication“, Skopje: Lokomotiva
♦ Ilczuk Dorota; Kulikowska Magdalena (2007), research: Festival jungle, policy desert? Festival policies of public authorities in Europe; (http://www.circle-network.jaaz.pl/doc/File/Festival_policies_draft_14.10.07.pdf) ♦ Jovicevic A., Vojanovic A. (2007) Uvod u studije performansa, Beograd: Fabrika knjiga ♦ Klaic, Dragan, (2006) Festival, in Lexicon, Performance Research, 4, 11 ♦ Klaic, Dragan, The Future of Festival Formulae, Background paper, A Holland Festival symposium in De Balie, Amsterdam, 19 June 2002 – by EFA ♦ Klaic D. (2001) Intercultural Competence: Cultural organizations and the challenge of multiculturalism, Originally published in the Economia della cultura ♦ Matarasso, Francois, (1996) Defining values: Evaluating arts programmes, The social impact of the Arts, Working Paper 1, Comedia, Stroud ♦ Mundy S. (2003) T he Performing Arts - a Manual for Managers, The Council of Europe ♦ Prpa, B. (Ed). (2007). BITEF – 40 godina novih pozorišnih tendencija. Beograd: Istorijski arhiv Beograda. ♦ Jacques Ranciere, 2008, The Emancipated Spectator, La Fabrique
67 ♦ Shone A.,Parry B. (2004) Successful event management: a practical handbook, London: Thomson ♦ Tanurovska, Biljana (2007), Contemporary Dance for Cultural Policy, (New models of institutions and reforms of cultural policy through regional contemporary dance practices) ♦ TKH Raster,(2010) Godisnjak nezavisne izvođacke scene u Srbiji 2009; izdanje TkH foruma za kritiku izvođačkih umetnosti; Beograd ♦ TkH, Casopis za teoriju izvodzackih umetnosti, TkH 4: NOVI PLES / NOVE TEORIJE, no. 4, Belgrade: TkH , 2002 ♦ Visnic, E., with the contribution of Sanjin Dragojevic, (eds.) (2008); A Bottom Up Approach to Cultural Policy Making, Amsterdam, Bucharest, and Zagreb: Policies for Culture
Journals, newspaper articles and sites
♦ Dacko, Karen, Balkan modern dance gets a boost - News - choreographer Mark Taylor teaches at conference, Sofia, Bulgaria - Brief Article, Dance Magazine, March 2002 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_3_76/ai_83450387
♦ Tanurovska Kjulavkovski B., Cvetković Marković M.: An analysis of an independent initiative in the (post)transitional turbo-capitalist societies of the Balkans
♦ Turcinovic Zeljka, (2003), Writing on Dance, Kretanja/Movements Magazine for Dance Art, special edition, Zagreb,
♦ Le Monde, Edito du Monde: "La folie festivals", 30 juin 2007 (Jul-2007)
http://www.antijargon.tkh-generator.net/?lang=sr http://www.balkandancenetwork.org/ www.brainstoreproject.com http://www.circle-network.jaaz.pl/doc/File/Festival_policies_draft_14.10.07.pdf www.dancestation.org www.danceumbrella.co.uk http://www.efa-aef.eu/
68 www.labforculture.org http://www.nomaddanceacademy.org/ http://www.tkh-generator.net/
69 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRES FOR DANCERS AND CURATORS OF KONDENZ DANCE FESTIVAL AND BDF
The questionnaire for contemporary dancers from Serbia:
1. What is your point of view of contemporary dance scene in Serbia?
2. As a dancer, how do you see your position in Serbian society?
3. What is your opinion about Kondenz? What is offering to dancers?
4. What is your opinion about NDA?
5. Since you had opportunity to work with local and international choreographers and dancers, through NDA, did it help you with your career?
6. What does a notion of platform stands for you?
The questionnaire for curators of Kondenz festival
1. What is the concept of Kondenz?
2. Does the mission changes every year
3. What is the goal of this festival?
4. How the selection of performances is made?
5. What is the target audience?
6. What is the role of Kondenz int he field of contemporary dance?
7. How do you see the future of this festival?
8. What kind of organisational structure this festival has? What are relationships inside the organisation?
70 The questionnaire for curators of Belgrade dance festival
1. What kind of organisational structure this festival has? What are relationships inside the organisation?
2. Does the mission change?
3. What is the concept base of BDF?
4. How the selection of performances is made?
5. Why there is no collaboration between the festival and local artists?
6. What is the role of media in this festival?
7. What is the future of BDF?
71 APPENDIX 2: PR REPPORT KONDENZ DANCE FESTIVAL
KONDENZ 10 Festival savremenog plesa 18-20. oktobar 2010. Bitef teatar, hotel Balkan, KC Rex PR izveštaj
Televizije
• TV Metropolis – najava u emisiji Downtown, najava-Dalija Aćin, 15.10 i 16.10.2010 • RTS – prilog za Beogradsku hroniku, snimano 15.10., gostovala Dalija Aćin, emitovano 16.10. 2010. • TV PINK - jutarnji program, gostovale Aleksandra Delić i Maud Liardon,18.10.2010 • TV B92 i radio B92 - jutarnji program, TV dizanje, gostovala Dalija Aćin,18.10.2010 • TV STUDIO B – jutarnji program, gostovala Dragana Alfirević, 18.10.2010.. • RTS – prilog za emisiju Beokult, snimano 19.10.2010. gostovale Dalija Aćin, Dragana Alfirević, Gregor Kamnikar Radio
• Radio B92 , Brakus od 3 do 5 , gostovale Dragana Alfirević i Dalija Aćin, 15.10.2010. • Radio Studio B , gostovala Dragana Alfirević, 15.10.2010. • Radio 202 – Ljubica i popodne 202 , gostovala Aleksandra Delić, 15.10.2010. • Radio Novosti, najava, 16.10.2010. • Roadstar radio, najava 16.10. 2010. • TV B92 i radio B92 - jutarnji program, TV dizanje, gostovala Dalija Aćin,18.10.2010 • Radio Index, najava 18.10.2010. • Radio Novosti, uključenje Dalija Aćin/Dragana Alfirević, 18.10.2010. • Roadstar radio, najava 18.10. 2010. • Radio Beograd 2, snimljena najava, Dragana Alfirević, emitovano 18.10.2010. • Radio B92, dnevna najava, 18.10.2010. • Radio 202, najava 19.10. (snimljeno sa Dalija Aćin/Dragana Alfirević) • Radio B92, dnevna najava, 19.10.2010. • Naxi radio, dnevne najave 18.-20.2010. • Beta RFI, najave voditelja 18.-20.2010. Dnevna štampa
• Danas – rubrika cultura (str.13) , najava, 18.10.2010 • Pravda - rubrika kultura (str. 21), najava,18.10.2010. • 24 sata - vodič , najava, 18.10.2010. • Pregled - slobodno vreme (str. 9), 18.10.2010. • Kurir - (str. 14), kratka najava, 18.10.2010. • Pravda - rubrika kultura (str. 18), najava,19.10.2010. • Politika - rubrika Sinoć u Beogradu (str. 22), 21.10.2010. • Politika - rubrika kultura (str. 13), kritika, 11.11.2010. Sa novimarima Blica, Večernjih novosti, Politike je potvrdjeno da su napisali najave.
Svim dnevnim izdanjima su poslati programi za rubrike Vodič kroz Beograd .
Web portali
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SeeCult - www.seecult.org
Izlazak - www. izlazak.com
Na dlanu - www. nadlanu.com
Yellowcab - www.yelowcab.rs sajt B92- www.b92.net/kultura
Mreža kreativnih ljudi - www.creemaginet.com
Naslovi net - www.naslovi.net www.vijesti.at/srbija www.vesti.rs
PR menadžer: Aleksandra Delić
73 APPENDIX 3: Serbian Ministry of Culture, grants allocated to cultural projects in 2006 РЕПУБЛИКА СРБИЈА Министарство културе Број: 451-04-1546/06-05 Датум: 12.06.2006. Б е о г р а д На основу Закона о делатностима од општег интереса у области културе («Сл. гл. РС», бр. 49/92), Закона о буџету Републике Србије за 2006. годину («Сл.гл. РС», бр. 106/2005) и Конкурса за суфинансирање пројеката/програма који својим квалитетом доприносе развоју и презентацији уметности и културе за 2006. годину (објављен 30.03.2006), на предлог конкурсних комисија, министар културе доноси
О Д Л У К У
о додели средстава за пројекте/програме из области:
74
APPENDIX 4:
Serbian Ministry of Culture, grants allocated to cultural projects in 2007
Република Србија МИНИСТАРСТВО КУЛТУРЕ Београд, Влајковићева 3 Број: 451-04-1567/2006-05 Датум: 11.07.2007.
На основу чл. 1. став 20, 3. и 4. Закона о делатностима од општег интереса у области
културе («Сл. гл. РС», бр. 49/92), Закона о буџету Републике Србије за 2007. годину ("Службени гласник РС", бр. 58/07) и Конкурса за суфинансирање ројеката/програма, који својим квалитетом доприносе развоју и презентацији уметности и културе за 2007. годину , на предлог конкурсних комисија, министар културе доноси
75
APPENDIX 5:
Serbian Ministry of Culture, grants allocated to cultural projects in 2008
П Р Е Г Л Е Д
одобрених пројеката на Конкурсу за суфинансирање пројеката/програма који својим квалитетом доприносе развоју и презентацији уметности и културе за 2008. годину
ПЛЕСНО СТВАРАЛАШТВО – пројекти у Републици
ОДОБРЕНА р.б. ПРОЈЕКАТ ПОДНОСИЛАЦ ПРОЈЕКТА СРЕДСТВА
Награда Димитрије Парлић , спомен 1. обележје истакнутим балетским УБУС, Београд 200.000,00 уметницима
Развој, презентација и промоција 2. Станица, Београд 400.000,00 савременог плеса
500.000,00 3. Представа Тело зграда/храм божији Исидора Станишић, Београд
Представе: Превише нас је и О 4. Далија Аћин, Београд 500.000,00 самоискушавању
500.000,00 5. Представа План полиптих ИСТЕР театар, Београд
250.000,00 6. Представа Била једном једна... Драгана Булут, Београд
100.000,00 7. Представа Између Љиљана Тасић, Београд
200.000,00 8. Belgrade Dance Screen Савет за игру Србије, Београд
9. Кореографије Констанце Макрас БИТЕФ ТЕАТАР, Београд 100.000,00
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2.750.000,00 УКУПНО:
ПЛЕСНО СТВАРАЛАШТВО – међународна сарадња
р.б. ОДОБРЕНА
ПРОЈЕКАТ ПОДНОСИЛАЦ ПРОЈЕКТА СРЕДСТВА
12.Фестивал кореографских Удружење балетских уметника минијатура Србије, Београд 1. 600.000,00
Учешће ученика и професора на Међународном такмичењу у Варни 2. Балетска школа Лујо Давичо , 500.000,00 Београд
3. 5.Бијенале балканског Удружење грађана Пер.Арт , 600.000,00 Нови Сад плеса
4. Плесна академија Станица, сервис за савремени 400.000,00 НОМАД плес, Београд
5. Шверц знања ТКХ- центар за теорију и праксу 300.000,00 извођачких уметности, Београд
Гостовање плесне трупе Алиас , Швајцарска 6. Народно позориште, Ужице 600.000,00
Гостовање Три сестре у Милану Истер театар, Београд 7. 260.000,00
УКУПНО 3,260.000,00
77 APPENDIX 6:
Serbian Ministry of Culture, grants allocated to cultural projects in 2009
Датум: 16.06.2009. Р Е З У Л Т А Т И
Конкурса за суфинансирање пројеката/програма који својим квалитетом доприносе развоју и презентацији уметности и културе за 2009. годину,
1. ПЛЕСНО СТВАРАЛАШТВО
ОДОБРЕНА р.б. ПОДНОСИЛАЦ ПРОЈЕКАТ СРЕДСТВА ПРОЈЕКТА/МЕСТО
Радионице савременог плеса и Станица- срвис за савремени Међународни фестивал KONDENZ плес, Београд 1. 200.000,00
Награда „Димитрије Парлић“ Удружење балетских
2. уметника Србије, Београд 130.000,00
5.бијенале балканског плеса Удружење грађана „Пер.Арт“,Нови Сад 3. 400.000,00
Учешће ученика Балетске школе Балетска школа „Лујо Давичо“ на Међународном 4. фестивалу игре у Берлину „Лујо Давичо“, Београд 300.000,00
Радионице савременог плеса Дечји културни центар, Београд 5.. 100.000,00
Фарма И. Станишић / СТАНИЦА, Београд 6. 500.000,00
Ме++ Д. Аћин /СТАНИЦА, Београд 7. 500.000,00
Три сестре или мушка прича Истер театар, Београд
78 8. 500.000,00
Програм професионалног Удружење балетских усавршавања играча уметника Војводине, Нови 9. Сад 100.000,00
УКУПНО 2.730.000,00
79 APPENDIX 7:
Serbian Ministry of Culture, grants allocated to cultural projects in 2010
Република Србија МИНИСТАРСТВО КУЛТУРЕ Београд, Влајковићева 3 Број:640-02-27/2010-05 Датум: 28. 4. 2010.
О Д Л У К У
о додели средстава у области плесног стваралаштва:
Редни Назив пројекта Корисник средстава Предложени износ број
Стробоскоп Театар Мимарт, Београд
1. 200.000,00
Гостовањер Компаније Пауло Удружење грађана Рибеира, Португал са 2. представом „Мајорка“ Уметност давања, Ниш 200.000,00
Изложба Небојше Бабића „Наша игра“ / Београд, Нови 3. Сад и по градовима Србије/ Оранж студио, Београд 200.000,00
4. Прва помоћ Истер театар, Београд 50.000,00
Гостовање представе „Пустиња“ у Милану 4. Истер театар, Београд 150.000,00
Удружење балетских уметника Србије 5. Награда Димитрије Парлић 130.000,00
14.фестивал кореографских Удружење балетских минијатура уметника Србије 6. 450.000,00
Стручно усавршавање Удружење кореографа и играча професионалних 7. Александра Илића балетских играча, кореографа и педагога,
80 Београд 200.000,00
Програм професионалног Удружење балетских усавршавања балетских играча уметника Војводине 8. 445.078,00
Фестивал извођачких Удружење грађана уметности Ф.и.умен.нс“ „Пер.Арт“, Нови Сад 9. 480.000,00
Плесне представе „Отело“ кореографа З. Марковића и 10. „Играле се делије“, БИТЕФ театар, Београд 1,400.000,00
11. Странац Станица – Чарни Ђерић
150.000,00
12. Рајд Савез за алтернативно стваралаштво Култура нова 100.000,00
УКУПНО 4,155.078,00 ДИНАРА
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tina Dunjić was born on 21th July 1979 in Zagreb. She graduated from French language and literature and information sciences on Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. For three years she was working as teacher of French language in school for French language, Alliance française de Zagreb and as a freelance tour guide for the city of Zagreb and its region.
As a fellow of a French Government she went to France several times, in order to learn language (Alliance française de Paris), explore Paris (award on the competition “10 photo de la Francophonie) and 7 day course « Un regard sur l’Union Européenne » organized by the European Ministry of foreign affairs.
As she was always interested in dance (around 8 years of contemporary dance practice) and theatre she was volunteering on festivals, such as Dance Week Festival and Francophone Student Festival (FRASK) in Zagreb. The desire to learn more and get the deeper education in the field of culture led to enrolment in the MA studies of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy in the Balkans, joint program of the University of Arts in Belgrade, Université Lyon 2 and Université Pierre-Mendès France, Grenoble, in 2010. Her interests range from languages, dance, photography, literature to festival and cultural management.
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